TOP seed Andy Murray moved into the Erste Bank Open quarter-finals on Thursday as he came from behind to defeat France’s Gilles Simon in Vienna.
The Briton bounced back from losing the first set to register a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory in just over two hours and 40 minutes, and will now face American John Isner in the last eight.
Murray will make it three tournament triumphs this month, following on from the China Open and Shanghai Masters, should he win the Vienna title.
And if he can keep in form, he could still move up a place and be world number one for the first time in his career before the end of the year, such is the points situation between him and Novak Djokovic, who is not playing this week.
The Wimbledon and Olympic champion looked in trouble in the first set as world number 24 Simon responded to being broken in the opening game by winning the next four in a row, with a third break then sealing the set.
But Murray then dug deep to claim a second set that saw him win each of the last four games.
And after Simon required courtside treatment for blistering on a foot, Murray completed the job in the third, again taking the final four games.
Elsewhere, Angelique Kerber posted her third straight win at the WTA Finals while Dominika Cibulkova seized her last chance to join the world number one in the semi-finals.
After losing her opening two matches, Cibulkova knew only a straight-sets win over Simona Halep and the same result for Kerber against Madison Keys would be enough to see her progress in Singapore.
And Cibulkova won the hard-fought match 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) before Kerber then eased past Keys 6-3, 6-3.
Halep had her left knee heavily strapped and was clearly in some discomfort but battled manfully to force a decider.
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