Felix Auger-Aliassime swept aside young Italian Jannik Sinner as he rediscovered some of his early-season form after some recent struggles.
The Canadian eighth-seed conceded just three games in a 6-1 6-2 win on Court Three in Spain’s capital, sending down five aces compared to his younger rival’s sole effort.
Auger-Aliassime forced eight break points, taking half of them as he swatted away Sinner and moved into the quarter-finals.
He will be joined by Greek world No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who downed Bulgarian veteran Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 6-4 at Arantxa Sanchez, with 10 aces for the younger man enough to help him to victory.
Tsitsipas will play again on Saturday on Manolo Santana against Andrey Rublev, who is operating under a neutral flag following the ban on Russian and Belarussian representation due to the invasion of Ukraine.
On the same court, Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz was pushed hard by Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic with a 7-5 6-3 victory, with a remarkable 16 aces allowing him to batter his unseeded rival into defeat.
Hurkacz is due to face Novak Djokovic, another Serbian, after the world No. 1 was given a walkover following Andy Murray’s withdrawal due to a case of food poisoning.
Elsewhere, Germany’s Alexander Zverev completed a comfortable and expected win against another Italian, Lorenzo Musetti. His dominance in the serve, winning 89% on his first and an impressive 80% on his second. The prize for Zverev is a quarter-final match on Friday against Auger-Aliassime
