Third seed Tommy Robredo demolished fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday to cruise into the third round of the Barcelona Open.
Robredo, runner-up to Rafael Nadal last year and the winner in 2004, needed just 69 minutes to advance to a clash with 15th seed Agustin Calleri of Argentina or Italian qualifier Paolo Lorenzi in the last 16.
After cruising through the first set, world number five Robredo broke serve in the fifth and seventh games of the second set before serving out for victory.
"It was good," said Robredo, who landed 87 percent of his first serves. "I don't feel physically 100 percent yet but technically, my tennis is good.
"It was quite a predictable match as we know each other's game so well. It was just a matter of waiting to see who made mistakes."
Fourth seed David Nalbandian was barely tested as he breezed into the last 16 with a 6-2 6-0 drubbing of Spaniard Alberto Martin.
Argentine Guillermo Canas, the 12th seed who beat world number one Roger Federer twice last month, eased past Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-2, 7-6 in a first-round battle.
SAFIN LOSES
But there was another defeat for former world number one Marat Safin as he went down 6-4, 7-6 in the first round to Simone Bolelli, the world number 103 from Italy.
The 11th-seeded Russian, beaten in the second round in Monte Carlo last week, fought back from an early break down to square the match at 4-4, only to then drop his serve and hand Bolelli the first set.
Neither man could force a break point in the second set but Bolelli snatched the tiebreak 7-5.
"I just couldn't find my game today," Safin said. "It was pretty slippery and I barely had a chance. He had nothing to lose."
Former French Open champion Gaston Gaudio suffered a humiliating first-round defeat as he was battered 6-1, 6-0 by Swede Robin Soderling.
The horribly out-of-form Gaudio, who has won just four matches all year and slipped to 69th in the world rankings, mustered just 20 points in total.
Soderling, seeded 13, will play his compatriot, Thomas Johansson, the former Australian Open champion, in the second round.
Belgian Kristof Vliegen will meet top seed Rafael Nadal for the second time in a week after he beat Italian Davide Sanguinetti 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round.
Nadal beat Vliegen in straight sets in the third round on the way to the title at the Monte Carlo Masters Series event.
Carlos Moya eased past fellow Spaniard Marcel Granollers-Pujol 6-2, 6-4, while there were also first-round wins for Spanish 14th seed Nicola Almagro, Italian Potito Starace, Czech Jiri Vanek and American Paul Goldstein.
