British number one Andy Murray blew away Argentine 15th seed Juan Ignacio Chela 6-1, 6-3 to reach the third round at the Madrid Masters on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old Scot has steadily improved after missing three months of the season with a wrist injury and completely outclassed Chela after making a whirlwind start.
He broke the Argentine's serve twice in the first set and again in the second with a confident all-round display.
Chela fought back to break Murray for the first time at 4-2 down in the second set and missed a break point in Murray's next service game before losing his own serve again at the end.
Murray could meet world number two Rafael Nadal in the next round if the local favourite gets past Marcos Baghdatis on Wednesday.
"To beat players as good as Radek Stepanek and Chela back to back is awesome. It's good to know I can be consistent again and I need to keep it going now for the rest of the tournament," Murray said.
His display overshadowed world number one Roger Federer's return to action with a 7-6, 6-4 win over American qualifier Robby Ginepri.
The holder, playing his first ATP match since winning a fourth straight US Open on September 9, was not at his best early on.
He took the first set in a tiebreak and did not break serve until the fifth game of the second when he lured Ginepri to the net and beat him with a delightful backhand lob.
"It's tough to find a rhythm after time out. It's much easier in practice," Federer said.
"I managed to serve myself out of trouble once or twice which was encouraging and all in all I am happy with my performance."
DAVYDENKO INJURY
Earlier, Argentine Juan Monaco upset 11th-seed Tommy Haas of Germany 6-4, 7-5 in the second round.
Big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic continued his good form to knock former winner Marat Safin out 6-3, 6-4.
Karlovic, who won his third title of the season in Stockholm on Sunday, wrapped up the victory with his 17th ace of the match, overpowering the 2004 winner in 58 minutes.
The 28-year-old, at a career high 24 in the ATP rankings, earned a second-round match with Spaniard Oscar Hernandez.
He was due to face fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko but the Russian pulled out on Tuesday with an elbow injury.
Another former champion, Juan Carlos Ferrero, saw off qualifier Alejandro Falla 6-4, 7-5 and set up an all-Spanish second round match with Carlos Moya, the 14th seed.
Argentines David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri, France's Paul-Henri Matthieu, Spanish debutant Nicolas Almagro and Germany's Nicolas Kiefer all progressed.
