British number two Greg Rusedski was made to work hard before securing his place in the third round of the St Petersburg Open. Rusedski recovered from losing the first set to beat American Kevin Kim 4-6 6-3 6-4.
The Briton will face second seed Thomas Johansson of Sweden in the last eight.
Johansson, the 2002 Australian Open champion, needed less than an hour to get past the challenge of Romania's Andrei Pavel 6-2 6-2.
Top seed Nikolay Davydenko also advanced smoothly with a 6-3 6-4 win against American Paul Goldstein.
The Russian broke twice early to take a commanding 5-0 lead in the opening set, which he completed in 34 minutes.
Goldstein built a 3-0 advantage in the next but Davydenko rallied a broke back twice to seal the contest in one hour 12 minutes on his first match point.
Defending champion Mikhail Youzhny also enjoyed a comfortable victory.
Five of the eight seeds failed to survive beyond the second round and Coria did not hide his disappointment at his early exit, with the Masters Series following in Paris next week.
"I wanted to reach at least the quarter-finals or semi-finals here in order to get some confidence," he said.
"I felt mentally good enough to achieve that. Now I have to go to Paris where the conditions are completely different."
Nalbandian is now the only seed left in the bottom half of the draw and is looking to secure a place in the end of season Masters Cup in Shanghai.
"Of course Shanghai is the goal for me," he said.
"But there are so many players who are so close I know that I need to win the tournament to improve my chances."