Bernard Tomic's revival has been short-lived, with the fallen Australian tennis star crashing out of the Japan Open in less than an hour.
Two days after winning his first match in more than three months, Tomic suffered a 6-3 6-1 loss to Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
Wednesday's match was all over in 56 minutes, with Tomic's hopes of a desperately needed rankings boost taking another big hit.
Projected to end the week at 143rd in the standings, the one-time world No.17 and Wimbledon quarter-finalist is fast running out of time - and tournaments - to return to the top 100 and guarantee himself an Australian Open start.
Schwartzman was a surprise quarter-finalist at last month's US Open but looked a good match-up for Tomic on the Tokyo hardcourts.
But it was apparent from the outset that Tomic would have his work cut out as the South American baseliner doggedly ran down ball after ball.
After losing the first set, Tomic dropped serve twice more to bow out with barely a whimper.
Croatian top seed Marin Cilic, a 6-3 6-4 winner over local wildcard Yasutaka Uchiyama, and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, who beat Czech Jiri Vesely 6-3 6-2, also moved into the quarter-finals.
But US Open finalist Kevin Anderson lost 6-3 1-6 7-6 (7-2) to American Ryan Harrison in the day's biggest surprise.
Fresh off his weekend title success in Shenzhen, Belgian fourth seed David Goffin won his opener 7-5 6-1 against Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
Goffin will face Australian qualifier Matt Ebden in the second round.
Runner-up to Goffin last week, Ukraine Alexandr Dolgopolov reached round two with a 6-1 6-2 win over Russian Daniil Medvedev.
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