Tommy Robredo went down to Nicolas Almagro in straight sets in the Brasil Open second round on Wednesday.
Almagro held a formidable 5-1 head-to-head over his Spaniard heading into the meeting, and he improved on that with a 6-3 7-6 (7-1) victory on the clay in Sao Paulo.
He served 10 aces and took his chances, booking a last-eight clash with Uruguayan fifth seed Pablo Cuevas.
Both Almagro and Robredo held relatively comfortably in the opening exchanges, before the former squandered a break point in the sixth game.
But Almagro made no mistake in the eighth game as he took a 5-3 lead before recovering from 15-40 down to serve out the set.
Almagro broke in the opening game of the second set, only to give up that advantage in the sixth game.
A set point went begging for Robredo in the 12th game, and the tie-break was one-sided – Almagro winning seven straight points from 1-0 down.
Cuevas was only on court for 22 minutes in his second-round clash.
He led Facundo Bagnis 5-1 before the Argentine lucky loser retired.
There was better news for another Argentine – Leonardo Mayer – with the fourth seed advancing courtesy of a 6-4 3-6 6-1 win over Spain's Albert Ramos.
Mayer will face either Slovakian eighth seed Martin Klizan or Brazilian wildcard Joao Souza in the last eight.