Cape Town - South Africa's Kevin Anderson claimed a significant clay-court scalp on Tuesday when he defeated Spaniard David Ferrer in the second round of the Barcelona Open.
Anderson defeated Ferrer, a former world No 3, in surprisingly comfortable fashion, 6-3, 6-4.
The South African No 1 had defeated Argentina's Carlos Berlocq 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 in his first round match earlier in the week.
However, Anderson is likely to find the going tough further in the tournament, with clay-king Rafael Nadal set to be his next opponent.
Nadal, who has won the Barcelona event nine times and has the centre court named after him, plays Brazilian Rogerio Dutra Silva on Wednesday, a match he should win against the world No 69.
The 30-year-old Anderson was ranked as high as No 10 in the ATP Rankings in 2015 before an injury-plagued 2016 saw his ranking drop significantly.
He is currently ranked 66th in the world by the ATP.
Results from the ATP Barcelona Open on Tuesday (x denotes seeding):
Second round
Dominic Thiem (AUT x4) bt Kyle Edmund (GBR) 6-1, 6-4
Daniel Evans (GBR) bt Mischa Zverev (GER x14) 6-4, 6-4
Yuichi Sugita (JPN) bt Richard Gasquet (FRA x9) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3)
Pablo Carreno-Busta (ESP x7) bt Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-4, 6-2
Alexander Zverev (GER x8) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP) 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-4
Kevin Anderson (RSA) bt David Ferrer (ESP x13) 6-3, 6-4
Benot Paire (FRA x17) bt Marcel Granollers (ESP) 6-3, 7-6 (8/6)
First round
Bernard Tomic (AUS) bt Dustin Brown (GER) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) 7-5, 6-3
Chung Hyeon (KOR) bt Denis Istomin (UZB) 6-4, 6-4
Rogrio Dutra Silva (BRA) bt Renzo Olivo (ARG) 6-1, 6-1
Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO) bt Taro Daniel (JPN) 6-3, 6-1
Karen Khachanov (RUS) bt Thomaz Belluci (BRA) 6-3, 6-4
Horacio Zeballos (ARG) bt Santiago Giraldo (COL) 6-2, 6-3