Men's singles defending champion Jaroslav Smedek of Czech Republic eased past India's Dhananjay Dubey, seeded 13^th, by winning both sets 6-1 at the Recreio da Juventude in the Brazilian city.

In the last eight, he is set to face one of the few players who caused a shock in France's Maxime Sanchez, who overcame Germany's eighth seed Sebastian Schaeffer 7-5, 6-7, 7-5.

The 2017 Deaflympics silver medallist Andres Sebastian Vazquez of Ecuador, seeded second, recorded a 6-1, 6-1 victory against American Alfredo Luis Galvez, with Hungarian fifth seed Gabor Mathe awaiting him in the quarter-finals after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win against France's Vincent Novelli.

Third seed Marino Kegl of Slovenia eased through as he double bageled Turkey's Emir Vatansever, while quarter-final opponent Mikael Alix Laurent - the French seventh seed - dropped only one game in his 6-1, 6-0 win against Canada's Martin Hong.

Prithvi Sekhar of India, seeded fourth, saw off Slovakia's Marek Vaco 6-1, 6-3, and is due to meet Greece's Grigorios Samartsidis in the last eight after he upset Turkey's Sercan Yesilova 6-3, 6-0.

In the women's singles, defending champion Lin Chia-Wen of Chinese Taipei had to come from one set behind to beat France's Jennifer Lambert.

Lin trailed after losing the first set 6-2, but recovered to win the following two sets 6-3 and 6-2, setting up a tie against Serbia's seventh seed Stasa Srbulovic, who eased past India's Jafreen Shaik 6-4, 6-2.

In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Jana Janosikova of Slovakia eased past India's Bhavani Kedia 6-0, 6-1, and faces a tough test against Chinese Taipei's Ho Chiu-mei, seeded fifth, after she saw off Italy's Cristina Abrami 6-3, 6-2.

Third seed Heike Albrecht-Schroeder of Germany did not drop a game en route to a 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Uruguay's Olga Melgarejo, a feat matched by her quarter-final opponent Tutem Banguoglu of Turkey against Israel's Ligal Itach.

The only women's singles seeded player who failed to progress was Germany's Verena Fleckenstein.

The fourth seed bageled Rotem Ashkenazy of Israel in the first set, but her opponent hit back to take the following two sets 6-3 and set up a quarter-final against Greece's sixth seed Vasiliki Kalogeropoulou, who beat Katerina Blascikova of Czech Republic 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

Croatia racked up their third straight win in the men's handball tournament at the University of Caxias do Sul Multi-Sport Gym, thrashing Ghana 41-13.

Germany also made it back-to-back victories by seeing off Kenya 43-13.

In the men's basketball tournament at the Vasco da Gama Gym, defending champions Lithuania eased past hosts Brazil 98-36, while the 2017 bronze medallists Ukraine overcame the runners-up from the last Deaflympics Venezuela 88-53 and Greece saw off Chinese Taipei 76-37.

At the SESI Arena, Poland hit treble figures in their 100-65 win against Argentina, and Israel defeated Kenya 85-30.

In the only women's basketball match of the day, Italy beat Poland 61-42.

The delayed Deaflympics is due to run until next Sunday (May 15).