The 26-year-old Spaniard, ranked number five in the world, won his singles quarterfinal match 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours 24 minutes against the 30-year old Argentine, ranked 78th in the world.

Nadal will face off in Saturday’s semi-final against another Argentine, Martin Alund, who earlier on Friday beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 7-5, 7-6.

In another quarter-final on Friday, David Nalbandian beat Nicolas Almagro, the winner of the Brazil Open last year. u00a0Nalbandian will contest Saturday’s other semi-final against Italian Simone Bolelli.