MELBOURNE, Australia -- Fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero became the first man to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open when he thrashed Croatia's Mario Ancic 6-0, 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday.

The Spaniard outplayed a nervous Ancic in one hour 41 minutes to reach the last eight at Melbourne Park for the first time.

Runner-up at last year's French Open, Ferrero has never before progressed beyond the third round of the Australian Open.

Ferrero next meets Wayne Ferreira, who beat Armenian Sargis Sargsian 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Meanwhile, three-time men's champion Andre Agassi had an easy path to the quarterfinals when Argentina's Guillermo Coria withdrew with a foot injury after Agassi pulled ahead 6-1, 3-1.

Agassi, bidding to become the first overseas male player to win four singles titles in Melbourne, insisted that, he would rather have finished the match than earn some extra rest.

"You want to push yourself and you want to feel the energy of starting a match and figuring it out and closing it," Agassi seed.

"There's some good in it. I'll certainly be rested and ready to go. But I prefer to play tennis as opposed to not play tennis."

In the quarterfinals, Agassi will play 12th seed Sebastien Grosjean, who defeated Felix Mantilla 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.