Ferrer into quarterfinals and matchup with rising star Thiem

The top-seeded Nadal needed one hour and 40 minutes to wrap up a second consecutive straight-set win at this clay-court tournament on Thursday, part of the ATP Tour’s South American swing, reports EFE. ‘It was good experience for me anyway, even if it was hard for me’.

“I felt so bad physically”.

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. “I saw last week that I can beat the big guys”.

Nadal made it 14 wins in 15 meetings against Almagro, who was pushed around and missed his chances in the opening set. “That’s the key on the improvement of my game, and victory helps”.

Next up for Ferrer is Thiem – the tournament victor in Buenos Aires last week – in the last eight, with the Spaniard expecting a tough test.

“He’s a very great player”, Ferrer said of Thiem.

In some sad news for Brazil, the country’s top tennis player was eliminated recently by Ukraine’s Alexander Dolgopolov, 7-6, 5-7, 2-6.

“It was not very nice to go into the rain delay because I nearly had the match”, Thiem said.

Constant downpours the first three days forced schedulers to compress the schedule on Thursday and put Ferrer in action during the afternoon with suffocating humidity and temperatures around 35C.

Dolgopolov, Nadal’s opponent in Friday’s quarterfinals, rallied Thursday to defeat Spain’s Iñigo Cervantes 3-6, 6-0, 6-3.

And Number 2 seed David Ferrer won his match against Nicholas Jarry of Chile 6-3, 7-6.