Argentine eighth seed David Nalbandian looked in ruthless mood during his straight sets destruction of German Florian Mayer. Qualifier Mayer, ranked 218, who beat France's Richard Gasquet in round one, could not match Nalbandian's power from the baseline.
Mayer did manage a break of serve in the third set but it was virtually all over by then and Nalbandian went on to win 6-1 6-0 6-3.
The Argentine broke serve eight times in the 94-minute match.
"I feel so good this year," said Nalbandian. "This tournament I feel great."
Nalbandian was runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon two years ago and a semi-finalist at last year's US Open.
There had been doubts about his participation in Melbourne because of a lingering wrist injury, but he began the year by crushing Andre Agassi in the final of the Kooyong Classic.
"All throughout December I didn't feel pain, so for me it was very good," he explained.
Nalbandian will next play David Sanchez or 31st seed Wayne Ferreira before a potential match-up with Tim Henman in the last 16.
MMIX
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