Rafa Nadal is through to the quarter-finals of the Rio Open after he defeated fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-3 7-5.
Nadal, the top seed in Brazil, is playing in his second tournament since being knocked out in the first round of the Australian Open.
After losing in the semi-finals in Buenos Aires last weekend to Dominic Thiem, Nadal made steady if unspectacular progress in the second round in Rio de Janeiro, seeing off world No 53 Almagro after one hour, 40 minutes on court.
Afterwards, the King of Clay admitted even he needs victories to boost his confidence, which has waned recently as his dominance has slipped on the slippery red surface.
"Winning is the important thing, which gives you confidence and lets you relax," Nadal said, adding that he felt his body was in much better condition than in Buenos Aires.
"I'm feeling better physically," he said. "Last week I had a little problem with my stomach during the whole week, and with the humidity, it was unbelievable.
"I felt so bad physically. Here I'm feeling much better because the stomach is much better. That's the key on the improvement of my game, and victory helps."
It was Nadal's 14th victory in 15 meetings with Almagro and he will now face Aleksandr Dolgopolov after the Ukrainian beat another Spaniard, Inigo Cervantes-Huegun, in three sets.
Nadal is joined in the next round by compatriot David Ferrer after the No 2 seed bounced back after losing the opening set to beat Albert Ramos 4-6 6-1 6-4.
Next up for Ferrer is Thiem - the tournament winner 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. "He's young. He's playing with confidence. He's going to be a top player, for sure.
"I like his game and tomorrow [Friday] is going to be tough I know. I'll have to play my best tennis for a win."
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.
"These are extreme conditions, and it's very difficult to play in conditions like this," Ferrer said.
In other key men's matches in the combined ATP-WTA event, Federico Delbonis defeated Paolo Lorenzio.
On the women's side, second-seeded Johanna Larsson was upset 6-4, 6-4 by Brazilian qualifier Paula Goncalves. No 3 Danka Kovinic defeated Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-2, 6-3 and No 6 Lara Arruabarrena beat Ana Bogdan 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.
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