MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Fourth seed David Ferrer used all of his cunning and exploited Kei Nishikori's nagging knee injury to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open with a 6-2 6-1 6-4 victory on Sunday.

Japan's Nishikori, who had entered the tournament with a knee injury, needed to have his left leg re-strapped in the second set of the two hour, 10-minute match, and his normally fluid movement appeared to be slightly hampered.

Baseline specialist Ferrer took full advantage of the 16th seed's injury, working him around the court and waiting for the 23-year-old to make one of his 65 errors, though the Japanese number one did put up some resistance in the third set.

The Spaniard will next play the winner of the fourth round encounter between eighth-seeded Serbian Janko Tipsarevic or 10th seeded compatriot Nicolas Almagro in the quarter-finals.

(Reporting by Greg Stutchbury; Editing by John O'Brien)