Brazilian claycourt specialist Gustavo Kuerten struggled through to the last 16 of the Barcelona Open on Tuesday with a gruelling 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 win over Swede Thomas Johansson.

The three-times former French Open champion, seeded six, has been out of form recently and he sneaked the first set 7-5 in the tiebreak.

Wild card entrant Johansson levelled the match but Kuerten again prevailed in the deciding third-set tiebreak 7-5 with the help of his powerful baseline shots to clinch a draining two-and-a-half hour victory.

Spanish number eight seed Tommy Robredo, in contrast, sailed through his second round match with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Slovak Karol Beck. In a first round game former Barcelona champion and number 15 seed Felix Mantilla of Spain notched up a convincing 7-6, 6-0 win over Swiss qualifier Stanislas Wawrinka.

Spanish wild card Albert Montanes, who knocked out Albert Costa in the first round, also made it through to the last 16 after turning round a weak start to beat fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Number 10 seed Feliciano Lopez faced more of a battle to stay in the 990,000-euro ($1.17 million) tournament, beating American Jan-Michael Gambill 7-5, 7-5 in a first round game.

It was a good day for Spain, with eight of the country's players winning their matches.