By Chris Oddo | Thursday February 11, 2016

In a meeting of last year’s finalists and good friends, Rafael Nadal won for the fifth consecutive time over Juan Monaco, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals of the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.

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The simple scoreline does not give good indication of how competitive this match was. Nadal and Monaco, meeting for the eighth time, battled closely in each set, but it was Nadal who won the most important points to come away with the straight sets win.

Despite the loss the week had a triumphant feel for Monaco. The 31-year-old made his return on Tuesday from a five-month hiatus due to a right wrist surgery that ended his 2015 campaign. He defeated Italy’s Marco Cecchinato, 6-1, 6-3, in the first round.

Nadal’s victory sets up a quarterfinal with Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi. The Italian defeated Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman in three sets.

After giving back an early break in set one Nadal would break again for 5-3 when a Monaco backhand sailed long. But the Spaniard was not out of the woods yet. Monaco cracked a backhand return winner to break for 4-5, but he couldn’t consolidate.

Nadal would engineer his third break of the set to take the opener, but he quickly fell behind 3-1 in the second set before rallying to draw even.

Again, Nadal would strike when he needed to. He would break in the tenth game, setting up match point with a brilliant drop-lob combo that had Monaco running for a desperation ‘tweener only to have Nadal put away an easy smash winner.

The 98-minute victory marks Nadal’s seventh in eight matches with Monaco. Nadal has won the last 12 sets against the Argentine.

Second-seeded David Ferrer was also victorious on Thursday. He defeated Argentina’s Renzo Olivo, 6-2, 6-2.

8th-seeded Pablo Cuevas reached the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Santiago Giraldo.