British number one Andy Murray passed a difficult test against Benoit Paire to reach the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters on Thursday.
The two-time Grand Slam champion was pushed to three sets by the Frenchman, but eventually came out on top with a 2-6 7-5 7-5 victory.
Murray had struggled during parts of his second-round clash with Pierre-Hugues Herbert and he showed little improvement as he could find no answer to an inspired performance from the world number 22.
Paire broke serve on two occasions during a one-sided first set and he struck twice more at the start of the second as the match began to creep away from Murray
However, the two-time Major winner found a way back into the match, breaking three times on the way to taking the contest into a decider as Paire began to struggle on his serve.
Murray squandered an early break point in the third set and he was later punished by Paire, who converted his third break point to take a 5-4 lead in Monaco.
The frustrated Scotsman fought back, though, to break and hold serve before claiming the set and the win.
Darren Plant
