He will next face either fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero or France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who were due to meet later on a sunsoaked centre court in a potentially explosive third-round match.
Nadal dropped only one game in his second-round match against Dutch qualifier Thiemo De Bakker and it long looked like world number 51 Berrer would taste an even heavier defeat.
Berrer, a finalist in the Zagreb tournament earlier this year, won only five points in the opening set.By the fourth game of the second set, Berrer had doubled his tally, eventually bagging 18 points and triggering wild cheers when he clinched his only game.
A forehand winner down the line ended Berrer's ordeal in a match lasting just 54 minutes and Spanish players enjoyed a fine day on their favourite surface. David Ferrer ruthlessly brought Ivan Ljubicic down to earth with a 6-0, 7-6 victory and his compatriots Albert Montanes and Fernando Verdasco also reached the quarterfinals.
Ljubicic, who won the Indian Wells Masters last month, could not handle Ferrer's devastating forehand in a one-sided opening set before improving in the second as the Spaniard started to misfire.
Clay court machine
Ferrer will face Germany's Philipp Petzschner or Philipp Kohlschreiber for a place in the last four, with a possible match up against clay court machine Nadal looming.
In front of a sparse audience and a few paragliders swirling around the skies with screeching seagulls, the 11th-seeded Ferrer was initially barely bothered by his opponent's usually lethal first serve.
The eighth-seeded Ljubicic must have been giddy from all the chasing around he had to do as his opponent sent him charging round the court but he recovered in the second set.
He dropped serve in the third game but Ferrer allowed the Croatian to level at 5-5 with a forehand winner. David Ferrer, however, got his act together in the tiebreak, which he clinched 7-4 after Ljubicic netted a crosscourt forehand. Montanes beat Croatian fourth seed Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-4 while Verdasco, seeded sixth, recovered from a shaky start to see off Czech Tomas Berdych 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
Wozniacki advances
Top seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed into the third round of the Family Circle Cup with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova on Wednesday.
The world number two, who triumphed in Ponte Vedra, Florida last week, broke her Czech challenger's serve five times in the match to move ahead.
In other second-round action, third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was forced to retired while leading 6-2, 2-2 against American qualifier Christina McHale.
Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia advanced with a 6-4, 2-0 win after Japan's Ayumi Morita limped out with an adductor muscle injury.
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