Spain’s Rafael Nadal, seeded second, breezed into the round of 16 of the China Open in Beijing on Tuesday, defeating Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-1, 6-1.

It was a day marked by rain, which led all matches to be postponed except for the ones on centre court.

The Spanish world No.4, who was the finalist last year and the winner in 2005, barely needed an hour to beat the Italian, whom he had already defeated in their previous two faceoffs.

Nadal began the first set well, and broke his opponent to take a 3-0 lead; he eventually proved too powerful for Lorenzi and took the set 6-1.

Lorenzi tried to dominate the second set and won the first game, but Nadal’s response was overwhelming and the Italian was left with little option but to watch the Spaniard walk away with the second set 6-1, and with it, the match.

Nadal, who was cheered on by the Chinese public on the same court where he won his Olympic gold in 2008, will play France’s Adrian Mannarino or fellow Spaniard Albert Ramosin the last 16.

In earlier first-round action, Australia’s John Millman lost 6-4 3-6 6-3 to seventh seed Roberto Bautista-Agut.