Top seed David Ferrer marched into the quarter-finals of the UNICEF Open in 's-Hertogenbosch on Wednesday, beating Leonardo Mayer 6-3, 6-1.
In a match that lasted exactly an hour, the unheralded Argentine Mayer was never able to trouble the Spanish world number six, who continued to be in good form ahead of Wimbledon.
Third-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer couldn't say the same however, as he lost 6-2, 6-2 Japan's Tatsuma Ito. The other seeded player in action on Wednesday, eighth-seeded Pole Lukasz Kubo, was dumped put by France's Benoit Paire 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.
Other results on the day saw German qualifier Philipp Petzschner advance to the last eight after Croatian wild card Mate Pavic retired during their warm-up while Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin battled past Italian Flavio Cipolla 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.
Belgian Xavier Malisse knocked out Italian Paolo Lorenzi 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 as Luxembourg's Gilles Muller eased past Colombian Alejandro Falla 6-3 6-0.
Dutch wild card Igor Sijsling beat Belgian Olivier Rochus, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) in two close sets.
In Thursday's quarter-finals, Ferrer will play Sijsling, Petzschner takes on Roger-Vasselin, Muller battles Malisse and Ito meets Paire.
Francesca Schiavone staged a great escape in women's second-round action, fighting off eight match points as she came back from 6-0 down in a final set tie-break to beat Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2 2-6 7-6 (10/8).
Sixth seed Roberta Vinci was also pushed into a deciding set by a Romanian Monica Niculescu, but the Italian had a rather easier time of it as she stepped up to triumph 6-3 6-7 (4/7) 6-0.
Belgian Kirsten Flipkens beat fellow qualifier Daria Gavrilova of Russia 7-5 7-6 (7/4), while Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson was a convincing 6-4 6-1 winner over home favourite Arantxa Rus.
