Spaniards Nicolas Almagro and Pablo Carreno Busta have reached the quarter-finals at the Estoril Open claycourt tennis tournament in Portugal.
Almagro advanced on on Thursday at the expense of Portugal's last man standing in a 4-6 6-1 6-2 defeat of Joao Sousa. The 71st-ranked Almagro, recovering his ranking after several seasons of injury, has 12 ATP titles.
The 30-year-old showed his clay pedigree with 13 aces in a win lasting an hour and three-quarters.
Almagro moved into his second quarter-final of 2016; his best showing since the start of the year was a final in Buenos Aires where he lost to Austrian Dominic Thiem.
"Playing in Portugal against the best Portuguese player in history, I knew from the start it would be a very tough match," Almagro said.
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"There were high expectations about his campaign. He was very motivated and, in the beginning, didn't make any mistakes.
"I failed to convert the two break points for 5-5 but, afterwards, I started to play more aggressively.
"In the second set, he lost a bit of his consistency and started to make more unforced errors, whereas I started to hit the ball better and playing my tennis."
Eighth seed Carreno Busta lifted his game in a tight second set to put out Spanish-trained Japanese Taro Daniel 6-4 7-5, breaking three times on the way to victory.
"I'm happy to win in straight sets against a really tough opponent," said Carreno Busta, a clay finalist this season in South America.
"He fought a lot and I relaxed a bit in the second set. I had to refocus my tennis and play aggressive to win. I could have lost that set."
French top seed Gilles Simon reached the last eight as he dismissed countryman Paul-Henri Mathieu, winner of three of their four previous meetings, 3-6 6-2 6-1. He next plays Carreno Busta.
"I've had four days to prepare, I played a good first match but it's just a start," Simon said. "I want to continue with this kind of game for three more matches if possible.
"I feel I can win here."
Argentine seventh seed Leonardo Mayer defeated Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
