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Del Potro powers into Estoril quarters

Juan Martin del Potro is the defending champion in Portugal © Getty Images

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Juan Martin del Potro kicked off the defence of his Estoril Open title with an unpopular victory in Portugal.

In his first match on clay, the top seed powered past home favourite Rui Machado as he booked his place in the quarter-finals with a resounding 6-1 6-0 victory.

The world No. 10, who has not played competitively for five weeks, hit four aces as he sailed through the match in a little over an hour.

"I like to play on clay, I prefer hard courts obviously, but I have been working hard at home, before I came here," Del Potro said. "This tournament is very important to my clay-court season and for my confidence ahead of the Masters 1000 tournaments and Roland Garros."

Next up for Del Potro is seventh seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes, who had to come from a set down to beat American Bobby Reynolds 4-6 6-4 6-3. Elsewhere, there were wins for wildcard Joao Sousa, who benefited when fifth seed Denis Istomin retired from their match, and Albert Ramos.

Meanwhile at the BMW Open in Munich, fifth seed Bernard Tomic avoided an upset at the hands of clay-courter Potito Starace, triumphing 6-1 6-7(4) 6-3.

Marinko Matosevic won the battle of the qualifiers as he ousted Nikolay Davydenko's conqueror Robert Farah. The Australian won the opening set with ease, only to be pegged back as Farah won the second set on a tiebreak, but Matosevic secured his semi-final spot with a 6-1 6-7(2) 6-2 victory.

Elsewhere, Feliciano Lopez conquered Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4 7-6(4), while Phillipp Kohlschreiber beat Ernests Gulbis 7-5 6-3.

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