Top seed Rafael Nadal made a winning start in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, accounting for local qualifier Facundo Arguello in straight sets at the Argentina Open.
Nadal easily disposed of Arguello 6-4 6-0 at the ATP World Tour event in the Argentina capital.
A day after three seeds were eliminated in Buenos Aires, Nadal produced a resounding performance to close out the match in 64 minutes.
Nadal, who lost in the semi-finals at the Rio Open last week, was broken once but claimed five breaks of his own en route to his 714th match win.
The Spaniard is now 10th in the Open Era match wins list, eclipsing Boris Becker.
Standing in the way of Nadal and a semi-final berth is Argentinian Federico Delbonis.
Delbonis - seeking to become the first local to win the Argentina Open since David Nalbandian in 2008 - downed Italian Paolo Lorenzi 6-4 6-2.
The world number 66 had a 72 per cent success rate on his first serve.
Uruguayan third seed Pablo Cuevas won through to his first consecutive quarter-final at the expense of wildcard Guido Andreozzi.
Cuevas survived a tight opening set to triumph 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 on the back of seven aces and three successful break points.
Awaiting Cuevas is Argentinian Juan Monaco, who upset countryman and fifth seed Leonardo Mayer in straight sets.
The 2007 champion saved seven break points as he prevailed 6-4 6-4.