Murray battles past Mayer Spain

Andy Murray moved into the last eight of the Valencia Open after surviving a tougher than expected workout against Leonardo Mayer.

The top-seeded Scot produced an inconsistent performance in his second match since a six-week injury lay-off, but came good in the decider to win an entertaining tussle 6-4 3-6 6-3.

Murray will know he needs to improve for his last-eight clash with Spaniard Albert Montanes - who was given a valuable day's rest when his opponent, eighth seed David Ferrer, withdrew with an ankle injury.

Second seed Nikolay Davydenko made lighter work of seeing off Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-3 7-5.

Also going through were fourth seed Fernando Verdasco, a 6-3 6-3 winner over Janko Tipsarevic, seventh seed Tommy Robredo, who came from behind to beat Feliciano Lopez 4-6 6-3 6-4, and Mikhail Youzhny, who beat Pablo Cuevas 6-2 2-6 6-1.