BARCELONA -- A ruthless Rafael Nadal extended his winning streak on clay to 68 matches on Wednesday, opening his bid for a third consecutive Barcelona Open title with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Belgian Kristof Vliegen.
The top seed needed exactly one hour to advance to the third round, giving up just one more game than he did when beating Vliegen in Monte Carlo last week.
Vliegen held serve in the opening game but that was as good as it got as a rampant Nadal reeled off six straight games. After that, the result was never in doubt.
"Maybe he came out with a bit of a negative attitude after last week," Nadal said.
"In Monte Carlo, he fought to the end but today it was quite easy, I did not have to play at that high a level," Nadal said.
Nadal said he had more trouble keeping his concentration amid the noise coming from outside the stadium, where a protest was being held against Seat, the sponsors.
"It was a little difficult -- I didn't know what was happening," Nadal said.
The Spaniard, who is bidding to become only the second man, after Swede Mats Wilander, to win the title in three straight years, will meet former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, who beat 13th seed Robin Soderling 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2).
Second seed Nikolay Davydenko overcame a troublesome right shoulder and a difficult opponent in fellow Russian Yuri Schukin to reach the third round with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
The world No. 4 looked set for an easy win when he led by a set and 2-0, but world No. 218 Schukin, who was appearing in his first ATP Tour event of the year, hit back to level.
Davydenko was then broken in the first game of the final set but, after having treatment at 1-2, he reeled off the next five games to set up a clash with Italian Filippo Volandri, who ousted Spanish 14th seed Nicolas Almagro 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-1.
Fifth seed David Ferrer had a much easier time of it as he beat American Paul Goldstein 6-0, 6-0 in just 44 minutes.
Things are likely to get much tougher in the next round when he takes on Guillermo Canas, the man who beat world No. 1 Roger Federer twice last month, after the Argentine 12th seed hammered Czech Jiri Vanek 6-1, 6-1.
Seventh seed Juan Carlos Ferrero was forced to retire after just three games of his match against fellow Spaniard, qualifier Pablo Andujar, because of a stomach illness.
Eighth seed Juan Ignacio Chela beat American Vince Spadea 6-3, 6-3 and will now play Potito Starace, who beat Marat Safin's conqueror and fellow Italian Simone Bolelli 6-4, 6-3.
Former Barcelona champion Carlos Moya ended the comeback of Felix Mantilla with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over his fellow Spaniard, who was playing his first tournament for 18 months after overcoming skin cancer.
Another Spaniard, Oscar Hernandez, also reached the last 16 with a 6-1, 7-6 (4) win over Benjamin Becker, the German who ended Andre Agassi's career at last year's U.S. Open, while Serbian Boris Pashanski defeated Romanian Andrei Pavel 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.