Britain's Tim Henman had to work hard before overcoming South African Wesley Moodie to reach the quarter-finals of the Swiss Indoors in Basel. Henman found Moodie's serve difficult to break but eventually managed to triumph 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (0-7) 6-4.
He finally converted his first of 13 break points for the victory and a last-eight match against Jiri Novak.
Henman is currently seventh in the Champions Race, with the top seven qualifying for the Masters Cup finale.
Moodie's strong serving kept him well in touch in the opening set as Henman earned five break points but failed to convert any.
The Briton gained a mini-break in the tie-break and easily managed to hold on to his advantage to take the set.
But Moodie proved to be an equally difficult proposition in the second set in his first ever match against the British number one.
 |  This was a good match to come through |
Neither player could break the other's serve but it was the South African who was strongest in the tie-break, building up a 5-0 lead and Henman seemed resigned to the third set.
As the deciding set progressed, Henman was making life difficult for himself and only superb recoveries made up for some slack errors.
In the 10th game, Henman let two match points slip from his grasp as Moodie answered with aces on both occasions.
However, Henman soon set up a third opportunity to win and this time Moodie was unable to respond, finding the net with a volley to hand the Briton victory.
He will next face Jiri Novak, who advanced after fifth seed Tommy Robredo withdrew with a shoulder injury.
Henman admitted afterwards that he was very relieved to have made it through to a meeting with the man who beat him at the Athens Olympics.
"It was a long match but a good match to come through and physically I feel ok," he said.
"It was so tight and although I felt like I was dominating in patches, unless you break serve you have nothing to show for it so there was an element of relief to have come through."
Elsewhere, Austria's Stefan Koubek beat French Open champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-1 1-6 6-3.
Fourth seed David Nalbandian, the 2002 champion, also advanced thanks to a 6-4 6-4 success over American Vince Spadea.
Bohdan Ulihrach, who only made the tournament after Roger Federer withdrew injured, beat Ivo Heuberger 6-1 6-4.
MMIX
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