Jo-Wilfried Tsonga picked up a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber in his first appearance of the 2016 ASB Classic.
In a clinic performance, Tsonga needed just over an hour to dispatch his opponent as he booked his place in the quarter-finals.
The tournament's second seed was handed a break at the first time of asking after Kohlschreiber double-faulted his serve, leading to Tsonga carrying that advantage on to winning the first set in 31 minutes.
Kohlschreiber faced an uphill challenge when he was broken again in his first service game of the second set, his first serve (57 percent for the match) continuing to let him down.
The German worked himself into a position to break Tsonga's serve back at 3-2, but an unforced error deep left him frustrated as he let the chance slip away.
Tsonga held his last two serves comfortably, not dropping another point.
The Frenchman will meet Italian Fabio Fognini in tomorrow's night session quarter-final.
John Isner hit 31 aces in his match against Sam Querrey (Photosport)
Earlier in the evening, third seed John Isner grinded out a 7-6, 6-7, 6-4 win over Sam Querrey in an aces-heavy encounter.
Isner described the match-up with his fellow American as a "coin toss" with the first two sets going to tie-breakers as neither could force a break of serve.
The powerful servers hit a combined 52 aces, with Isner's 31st clinching the match in a shade over 2 hours 13 minutes.
"Obviously it was a very close match, I considered it a coin flip out here tonight, and I was fortunate to win," Isner said after the match.
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Isner advances to the quarter-finals where he'll play Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut, a player he beat in the semi-finals stages on the way to his 2014 title in Auckland.
"I've played him a few times, he's an incredible player, he's going to be a different match up for sure, I probably won't get aced as much, but hopefully I'm going to continue hitting some aces."
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