Nadal, Ferrer through in Rio

Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer enjoyed contrasting wins to reach the Rio Open quarter-finals on Thursday. Top seed Nadal, a semi-finalist in Buenos Aires last week, continued his dominance of Spanish countryman Nicolas Almagro with a 6-3 7-5 victory. Nadal made it 14 wins in 15 meetings against Almagro, who was pushed around and missed his chances in the opening set.

Almagro failed to convert his five break points in the first set and was broken three times in the second. Awaiting Nadal in the last eight is Alexandr Dolgopolov after the Ukrainian beat Spain's Inigo Cervantes 3-6 6-0 6-3. Ferrer progressed to his fourth quarter-final of 2016
with a 4-6 6-1 6-4 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas in an all-Spanish affair.

With the win, Ferrer improved to 6-0 against Ramos-Vinolas and set up a clash against in-form Austrian Dominic Thiem. Also on Thursday, Pablo Cuevas beat Brazilian wildcard Thiago Monteiro 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to advance to a meeting against Federico Delbonis, who won eight straight games on his way past Paolo Lorenzi 6-3 6-0. Guido Pella lost just eight points in the second set of his 6-4 6-0 thrashing of Colombian Santiago Giraldo.