Fifth seed David Ferrer survived a scare to beat British teenager Andy Murray 4-6 ,7-6, 6-1 in the second round of the Barcelona Open on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old Scot served for the match at 6-5 in the second set but Ferrer broke back to love and then snatched the tiebreak 7-4 before easing through the decider.
Spaniard Ferrer, the world number 12, will play Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland for a place in the quarter-finals.
After trading breaks in the opening two games Murray, who before this week had never won a match on clay on the ATP Tour, earned the vital break in the seventh game and held on to move ahead.
Ferrer served for the second set at 5-3 but Murray showed great tenacity to break back and then saved two set points before breaking again to lead 6-5.
That seemed to rouse Ferrer, though, and the Spaniard broke back to force a tiebreak and recovered from 3-0 down to level the match.
Once Ferrer had broken in the third game of the decider there only ever looked like being one winner.
"I didn't play a great game at 6-5 but I played a pretty solid one," Murray said.
"He is probably in the top five in the world on clay, he made the quarter-finals in Monte Carlo last week and I could have had him."
Promising French teenager Gael Monfils was sent packing, beaten 6-2, 6-4 in the second round by unseeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.
The 19-year-old led 4-2 in the second set but Almagro broke the Monfils serve twice in succession before serving out for victory.
He will now play Argentine third seed Guillermo Coria, who survived 16 double faults to beat Spanish wildcard Galo Blanco 6-7, 6-0, 6-2.
Ninth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic battled back to beat Albert Montanes of Spain 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a first-round match.
Italians Filippo Volandri and Potito Starace and Croatian Ivo Karlovic were among the other first-round winners.
Round 2
3-Guillermo Coria (Argentina) beat Galo Blanco (Spain) 6-7(4) 6-0 6-2
5-David Ferrer (Spain) beat Andy Murray (Britain) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-1
Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) beat Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-4 6-7(4) 6-4
Nicolas Almagro (Spain) beat 13-Gael Monfils (France) 6-2 6-4
Round 1
Fernando Vicente (Spain) beat Alex Calatrava (Spain) 7-6(4) 6-4
Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) beat Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 6-3 6-4
12-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) beat Robin Vik (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-4
Albert Portas (Spain) beat Oscar Hernandez (Spain) 6-2 6-4
Alberto Martin (Spain) beat Bartolome Salva (Spain) 6-4 6-2
9-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat Albert Montanes (Spain) 4-6 7-5 7-5
Agustin Calleri (Argentina) beat Justin Gimelstob (U.S.) 6-2 6-1
Filippo Volandri (Italy) beat Andrea Stoppini (Italy) 6-3 6-1
Potito Starace (Italy) beat Lukas Dlouhy (Czech Republic) 6-4 6-2
