Murray Digs Deep to Reach Last Eight

Andy Murray recovered from a set down to beat Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round of the Open 13 in Marseille. The British No1 lost the first set but eventually claimed a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 victory in two hours and 20 minutes.

Both players found serve difficult to hold and the opening set and a half featured nine breaks. Wawrinka, the world No32, had three set points in the first set before fourth seed Murray rallied to take the game to deuce, but Wawrinka finally took advantage at the fourth opportunity.

Murray, nursing a knee injury, continued to struggle at the start of the second set and lost serve in the first game, but again broke straight back to stay in contention. Yet another Wawrinka break followed but Murray rallied to level at 3-3 and, with no further breaks in the set, Murray won the tie break 7-5 to take the match to a decider. The 21-year-old broke Wawrinka in the third, fifth and seventh games to seal the tie and will now face Frenchman Nicolas Mahut, ranked 44th, in the last eight.

The win will boost the Scot after an unsettled start to 2008. Murray overcame today's opponent in the Qatar Open final at the start of this year, before crashing out of the Australian Open in the first round to eventual finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Murray was also forced to pull out of Great Britain's Davis Cup tie against Argentina because of injury.

World No9 David Nalbandian was part of the Argentinian team that completed a straightforward 4-1 success over John Lloyd's men at the weekend and said the match would have been harder if Murray had played. Nalbandian told Ole newspaper: "Murray did not want to come here, that's all. Each player knows what to do. He was not injured. His priority was not taking risks when playing on clay and immediately playing an indoor tournament then. The match was easy because of the level of our opponents. With Murray, it would have been totally different."