Stan Wawrinka joined Andy Murray as the pair of seeds each posted difficult wins on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals of the ATP Rotterdam World Tennis event.
Wawrinka, last year's Australian Open winner, struggled until breaking loose with his big game in the final set as he defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-7 (2-7) 6-4 6-2 for his second win over the Spaniard in three weeks.
Murray saved five break points to hold off determined Canadian Vasek Pospisil 6-3 7-5 and reach the quarter-finals.
The Scottish top seed and 2009 champion will next meet eighth seed Gilles Simon after the Frenchman needed just 67 minutes for a 6-4 6-3 defeat of Jeremy Chardy.
Murray stands an overwhelming 12-1 in the series with world number 19 Simon.
Wawrinka had his problems against Garcia-Lopez, whom he beat at the Australian Open last month.
The Swiss fourth seed went down badly in an opening-set tiebreaker to end a 63-minute opening set before recovering to start getting the match under control.
Wawrinka won the second set and ran away with the third to stay alive in an event he last played a decade ago.
Second seed Milos Raonic was playing the last of the second-round matches later against Italy's Simone Bolelli.
Murray battled for one and three-quarter hours against the 59th-ranked Pospisil to defeat the Canadian for a second time.
The second set was filled with momentum shifts, with Murray saving a set point which would have taken the contest into a third. Pospsil took the second set after a 30-point rally which resulted in a Murray racquet smash.
Murray finally prevailed with a break of his opponent for 6-5 in the final set, earning the win in the next game when Pospisil's return was ruled wide.
Third-seeded holder Tomas Berdych reached the last eight at the Ahoy Stadium with a defeat of Italian Andreas Seppi 6-0 3-6 6-3.
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