The top-seeded Almagro needed 1 hour, 43 minutes to get past the wild card Brazilian in the $562,000 clay event in northeastern Brazil.
Almagro got off to a slow start, but took the first set by dominating the tiebreaker and then broke Hocevar late in the second set to clinch the victory.
The 18th-ranked Almagro hit seven of his 11 aces in the first set. He will face Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina, who beat Nicolas Massu of Chile 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-4. Massu, the 2006 champion in Brazil, ended the match by squandering three game points on his serve.
Fifth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain defeated Flavio Saretta of Brazil 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. Sixth-seeded Eduardo Schwank of Argentina advanced with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over countryman Diego Junqueira, and Alberto Martin of Spain, runner-up in Brazil in 2005 and 2006, beat Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador 6-4, 7-5.
Second-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain is scheduled to face wild card Thiago Alves of Brazil on Tuesday, and third-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain plays countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero, the 2007 runner-up in Costa do Sauipe.
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