World No 2 Rafael Nadal [ Images ] swept into the third round of the Barcelona [ Images ] Open when he thrashed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-1, 6-2 as he began his quest for a seventh Conde de Godo trophy in eight years on Wednesday.
Fresh from a record eighth straight win at last week's Monte Carlo Masters, Nadal dispatched his 78th-ranked Spanish compatriot in a little over one hour and 20 minutes and will play another Spaniard, Pablo Andujar, or Colombian Robert Farah for a place in Friday's quarter-finals.
Top seed Nadal, whose victory was his 30th in a row at the clay event in the Catalan capital, said he had felt a slight twinge of pain in his left knee, an injury that forced his withdrawal from last month's Sony Ericsson Open in Miami [ Images ], but said it was nothing to worry about.
"It went better than I thought, I played a good match," the Mallorca native added.
"I made few errors, I felt good on my backhand for virtually the whole time and I was solid across the board."
Third seed David Ferrer of Spain eased into the third round when he thumped Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-0, 6-3 to set up a clash with compatriot Albert Montanes, a 6-0, 5-7, 7-5 victor over Australia's [ Images ] Bernard Tomic.
Britain's Andy Murray [ Images ], the second seed who went through on Tuesday, takes on Santiago Giraldo for a place in the last eight on Thursday after the Colombian beat Robin Haase of Netherlands 6-4, 6-3.
Photograph: David Ramos/Getty Images
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