Australia's world No.10 Alex de Minaur has passed his opening test at the China Open, scoring a straight sets victory over Mariano Navone.
De Minaur needed five minutes short of two hours to dispose of the Argentinian world No.45 in a 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 victory in Beijing on Thursday.
The 27-year-old will now meet French qualifier Quentin Halys, ranked No.50, in the last 16.
De Minaur's famous will to win was on display in the most crucial stat of the match: he saved nine out of 10 break points against him, while Navone could only escape four of seven.
Both men held serve throughout the first set, with de Minaur surviving one break point on an unforced Navone error in a deuce game to make it 5-5.
De Minaur led the tiebreaker 3-1 with a mini-break before Navone broke back to make it 3-3, but when the Australian won both of his opponent's next service points, he had a 6-3 break which proved decisive.
Navone fought back to break de Minaur in the first game of the second set with his second break point from deuce, but the fifth seed recovered immediately, breaking Navone to 15.
Games went to serve until de Minaur broke again for a 4-2 lead, before a final break to take the match.
De Minaur sent down six aces to Navone's one and held the edge for points won on first serve (70 per cent to 60 per cent) and on second serve (63 per cent to 48 per cent).
Among other results on Thursday, top seed Alexander Zverev, in his first tournament since winning the US Open, won his first round encounter with Britain's Cam Norrie 7-6 (7-1) 6-4.
Italian fourth seed Flavio Cobolli bowed out with a 6-3 6-2 loss to 84th-ranked Roman Safiullin, while Halys beat Peru's 35th-ranked Ignacio Buse 6-1 7-6 (7-3).
In Tokyo, Kei Nishikori bade an emotional farewell to his career, the retiring 36-year-old losing 6-4 6-4 to second-seeded American Frances Tiafoe in the first round.
Third-seeded American Taylor Fritz lost 6-7 (9-7) 6-4 6-3 to Spain's Jaume Munar.
Italy's Matteo Arnaldi was a 2-6 6-4 6-4 winner over Japan's Rei Sakamoto.
