Almagro continues winning ways in Brazil
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Two-time defending champion Nicolas Almagro was a hard-fought second-round winner Thursday at the clay-court Brasil Open.
The second-seeded world No. 11 Almagro fired 18 aces in holding off Chilean qualifier Paul Capdeville 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 on Day 4 in Sao Paulo.
The three-time Brasil Open champ Almagro beat Italian Filippo Volandri in last year's finale here and also captured this event in Costa do Sauipe in 2008 and 2011.
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Almagro's quarterfinal opponent on Friday will be oft-injured former top-five star and former Wimbledon runner-up David Nalbandian, who cruised past fellow Argentine Guido Pella, 6-4, 6-2.
A series of upsets came when Italian Simone Bolelli took out third-seeded Argentine Juan Monaco 7-5, 6-2; Volandri upended fifth-seeded Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 6-2; Albert Montanes erased seventh-seeded fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar 7-5, 6-2; and Argentine Carlos Berlocq doused eighth- seeded Spaniard Albert Ramos 7-6 (9-7), 6-4. Bellucci was a Brasil Open runner-up in 2009.
Montanes will meet Bolelli in the round of eight.
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The 2013 Brasil Open titlist will earn $82,300.