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St Helens’ ominous return to form continues. With their Australian centre Matt Gidley producing his best display yet for the club, finishing with a hat-trick, Daniel Anderson’s side proved too strong for Warrington and moved top of the table.

Gidley has made a slow start to the task of filling Jamie Lyon’s boots, but here he looked like the player that has terrorised NRL defences for a decade. With Leon Pryce and Keiron Cunningham causing endless problems in the middle of the field, early defeats to Harlequins and Wakefield are becoming a distant memory.

Warrington had won one of the teams’ previous 27 Super League meetings, and had not beaten St Helens for six years. The Wolves hardly helped their cause in the opening exchanges, with Lee Briers conceding a penalty for dissent while in possession attacking the line. Martin Gleeson also had a try ruled out by the video referee for a double movement.

The more contentious decision came at the opposite end two minutes later. Gidley got the faintest of touches to a Sean Long grubber to the in-goal area, and the video referee ruled that he had sufficient control to award the try after several viewings.

The home support were further angered by St Helens’ second score soon after, as Briers appeared to be pushed Cunningham as he played the ball. But the referee, Ashley Klein, waved play on, and moments later Nick Fozzard and Gidley sent Ade Gardner over. The visitors were soon 16 points to the good courtesy of Gidley’s second try.

It took two moments of quick thinking from Briers to haul Warrington back into the contest before half-time. First he gained a penalty by holding the ball at the back of the scrum, and then tapped the ball quickly to dummy his way over. Then Briers kicked perfectly for the prolific Henry Fa’afili to finish. Briers’ touchline conversion made it 12-16 at the break.

But Saints re-established control with three tries in the third quarter, with Francis Meli forcing his way over from close range, Gidley completing his hat-trick from a Cunningham pass, and Mike Bennett strolling over.

Pryce then scored two tries and created another for Paul Wellens to complete the second-half procession, and the Wolves’ mood was hardly helped when their halfbacks Briers and Chris Bridge both limped off near the end.

Warrington Wolves Reardon; Fa’afili, Martin Gleeson, Johnson, Grose; Bridge, Briers; Rauhihi, Clarke, Wood, Westwood, Wainwright, Anderson. Interchange Sullivan, Mark Gleeson, Parker, Leikvoll.

St Helens Wellens; Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli; Pryce, Long; Fozzard, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Bennett, Wilkin. Interchange Roby, Graham, Fa’asavalu, Bannister.

Referee A Klein (Silsden)

(06-04) 10:46 PDT PARIS, France (AP) —

Rafael Nadal completed the men’s quarterfinal field at the French Open on Monday by sweeping Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (5).

The two-time defending champion is 18-0 lifetime at the French Open, which seems to be getting easier for him: For the first time, he reached the final eight without losing a set.

“I played my best match of the tournament,” Nadal said. “Lleyton is always a very good test and a very tough match because he is a winner. I’m happy with my game today.”

A potential showdown looms Sunday between the No. 2-seeded Nadal and top-ranked Roger Federer, who seeks his first French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.

Nadal’s opponent Wednesday will be fellow Spaniard Carlos Moya, the 1998 champion.

“I prefer to lose against him than against any other player because he is a great friend,” Nadal said. “He did a lot of things for me when I arrived on the men’s circuit.”

Moya declined to take credit for Nadal’s dominance.

“I don’t think he learned anything from me,” Moya said. “And if he did, he did it much better than me.”

The other quarterfinal Wednesday will be between No. 125-ranked Igor Andreev and No. 6-seeded Novak Djokovic.

Andreev, who eliminated No. 3-seeded Andy Roddick in the opening round, advanced to his first major quarterfinal by rallying past No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, 6-4. Djokovic swept unseeded Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (1) to reach the final eight for the second consecutive year.

“Last year, I honestly didn’t expect to be in the quarterfinals,” the 20-year-old Djokovic said. “I was pretty much satisfied with my achievement. This year is much different.”

The marquee pairing in the women’s quarterfinals Tuesday features two-time defending champion Justine Henin against eight-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. It’s a rematch of their contentious 2003 semifinal at Roland Garros.

Hewitt had beaten Nadal in four of their six previous meetings, but on clay the matchup of baseliners was a mismatch from the outset. Nadal won 16 of the first 20 points.

“He just hits the ball so much differently to anyone out there,” Hewitt said. “His spin off his forehand Д it’s quite amazing. He can really work it over.”

The No. 14-seeded Hewitt led for most of the third set and held advantages of 4-2 and 5-4 in the tiebreaker. But he blew an easy forehand to make it 5-all, then netted another easy forehand on the final point.

Nadal displayed racket wizardry even between points, when he drew applause for an over-the-shoulder catch on the strings of a ball lobbed from the other end of the court. He’s bidding to become the first man to win a third consecutive French Open title since Bjorn Borg was champion in 1978-81.

Moya overcame his relative inexperience to beat Jonas Bjorkman. A Roland Garros perennial, Moya was nonetheless the younger player Monday, and he swept the 35-year-old Bjorkman 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-5.

Wearing a sleeveless shirt and his cap backward, the 30-year-old Moya hardly looked like an old-timer. But he became the oldest man to reach the final eight at the French Open since Andre Agassi in 2003.

Moya has won two of his previous five matches against Nadal.

“It’s going to be a beautiful match to play,” Moya said, “and very tough for both of us.”

Once ranked No. 1, Moya is playing in the tournament for the 12th year in a row.

“Now I’m the oldest guy in the field,” he said. “I still remember when I was the youngest guy in the draw, and now I became the oldest. Time passed so fast. … When you’re younger, maybe you don’t value things as I do now. I enjoy more now.”

Bjorkman, the oldest man in the 128-player draw, overcame deficits of two sets to none in the first two rounds. But this time he was the one squandering leads.

The unseeded Swede was ahead 5-2 in the opening set but lost the next four games. He broke serve for 6-all and led 5-3 in the tiebreaker before Moya swept the final four points, the last with a net cord winner.

Bjorkman began to show signs of wear after losing the second set, when he needed a shoulder massage from a trainer.

“You know, I’m 35,” Bjorkman said. “My shoulder just got more tired than it normally does. … This is a great day. I obviously surprised myself to make the fourth round.”

He lost serve in the final game, pushing a tired backhand into the net on match point.

The No. 23-seeded Moya, long known for his Popeye-size right biceps, hit 21 forehand winners to three for Bjorkman, and the disparity helped the Spaniard save 11 of the 14 break points he faced.

Like Moya, the No. 6-seeded Djokovic benefited from a lucky bounce on an important point. It came in the tiebreaker, when his backhand kissed the net cord before dropping for a winner.

Djokovic crossed himself in gratitude. Verdasco retrieved the ball and put it in his courtside bag, prompting laughter from the crowd.

Verdasco shanked a forehand on match point, a fitting finish. The big-swinging Spaniard committed 50 unforced errors.

By the middle of the second set, when Djokovic led 4-0, he had a frustrated Verdasco talking to himself.

“I was stepping in more, and I was being aggressive,” Djokovic said. “I played the best tennis in the important moments.”

He’ll next face Andreev, who had a 19-6 edge in forehand winners against Baghdatis and punctuated his latest victory with a triumphant leap and uppercut.

To see what is possible, Charlton only had to look at their opponents on Saturday. A year ago, Portsmouth were two points worse off than Charlton are now, and although it took a barely credible effort for them to survive, the fact that they did, and have gone on to prosper, must offer hope.

“Portsmouth were in this position and they are the benchmark because they managed to get themselves out of it with a terrific run,” the Charlton captain, Matt Holland said. “I’m not saying we will go on that sort of run, but who knows? We knew we had a tough run coming, starting with this game, then Bolton, Manchester United and Chelsea, so we knew we needed to get something from this one.” As their manager, Alan Pardew, said, the key is not how far they are from safety now, but what the gap is at the end of that sequence.

It may have been Charlton’s first away win in 15 months, but, laudable as their doggedness was, it will not have anyone rushing to the club shop to buy the match video. The goal, 11 minutes from time, typified a scruffy game, the ball cannoning off Amdy Faye, as Sol Campbell and Glen Johnson hurled themselves into a challenge, and looping over David James.

“Alan is a good character and has made a big impact at the club,” Holland went on. “He likes to play at a high tempo and get at teams. He is knowledgeable and has come in and made a big impact on the players and, hopefully, he can do that for the rest of the season. He is very positive, and that is just what we need at this stage of the season. Rather than look at the negatives, we have to look at the positives, and this game was one.”

The Portsmouth manager, Harry Redknapp, was left to lament what he described as his side’s “worst performance of the season” and to deal with a number of off-pitch matters. He used his programme notes to deny rumours that he would happily see the Russian-speaking Israeli coach Avram Grant join Chelsea as some sort of mentor for the troubled Andrei Shevchenko, and defended Glen Johnson after the full-back was fined for switching the price tag on a toilet seat in B&Q last week.

“I’m not bothered in the slightest,” Redknapp said. “I’d rather he nicked a toilet seat than mugged an old lady or something. Then his career really would be going down the pan.”

The fear, after this performance, must be that Portsmouth’s season is heading in that direction after four League games without a win. Redknapp, though, found a positive in the performance of Lauren on his debut and insisted he was unlikely to be dabbling in the market again before deadline. That must be an odd feeling for him, but given where Portsmouth were a year ago, it is a rest he has earned. Pardew must look on with envy.

Goal: Faye (79) 0-1.

Portsmouth (4-4-2): James; Johnson, Primus, Campbell, Traorй; Lauren, Davis (Douala, 53), Pedro Mendes, Taylor; Kanu (Mwaruwari, 73), Cole. Substitutes not used: Ashdown (gk), Thompson, Hughes.

Charlton Athletic (4-5-1): Carson; Sankofa, El Karkouri, Hreidarsson, Thatcher; Rommedahl (Kishishev, 82), Faye (Diawara, 90), Holland, Hughes, Thomas (Hasselbaink, 90); Marcus Bent. Substitutes not used: Myhre (gk), Ambrose.

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).

Booked: Charlton Sankofa, Faye, Carson.

Man of the match: El Karkouri.

Attendance: 19,567.