David Ferrer overcame a first-set hiccup to down countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the Rio Open on Thursday. Looming in the quarter-finals will be an in-form Dominic Thiem, who won the Buenos Aires title on clay less than a week ago.

Ferrer came into the match with a commanding 5-0 advantage in his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry against Ramos-Vinolas, but faltered in his opening service game en route to dropping the first set in 51 minutes. The tenacious Ferrer righted the ship, only losing serve once more in the next two sets to reach his fourth ATP World Tour quarter-final of the year.

Guido Pella lost just eight points in the second set of a 6-4, 6-0 win over Santiago Giraldo. The Argentine secured the win in 80 minutes and will face Daniel Gimeno-Traver in his second ATP World Tour quarter-final appearance (2013 Dusseldorf, l. to Monaco). Pella had saved three match points in the first round against John Isner.

In the evening session, top seed Rafael Nadal will attempt to record his 14^th win in 15 meetings against Nicolas Almagro, last week’s finalist in Buenos Aires.

Eighth seed Benoit Paire will meet his good friend, top seed Stan Wawrinka, on Friday for a place in the semi-finals at the Open 13 Provence. Wawrinka leads Paire 6-1 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series, including victory last month in Chennai. Paire hit 10 aces past fellow Frenchman Vincent Millot, a qualifier, in a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over one hour and 36 minutes on Thursday.

Andrey Kuznetsov, who turns 25 on Monday, will hope to improve on his 0-5 record in ATP World Tour quarter-finals when he takes on four seed and 2011 finalist Marin Cilic. Kuznetsov moved into the last eight by beating wild card Quentin Halys 6-0, 6-4 in 56 minutes.

Nick Kyrgios, who is playing in his second tournament of the year, struck 17 aces past Teymuraz Gabashvili in a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 72 minutes. He now awaits the winner of third seed Richard Gasquet or Ernests Gulbis, who play during the evening session. Earlier this month, Gasquet won his 13th ATP World Tour title at Montpellier (d. Mathieu).

Second seed and 2013 runner-up Tomas Berdych plays wild card Alexander Zverev to close out play on day four.