Murray is the number two seed in Moscow

The second seed, who had been boosted by top seed Nikolay Davydenko's earlier defeat, broke his Czech opponent in the first game of a one-sided first set.

Murray, 20, was three games down in the second but fought back to seal victory.

The Scot must win the tournament to keep alive his slim hopes of qualifying for the Masters Cup and will meet fifth seed Dmitry Tursunov in the last eight.

"The first set was very good, the second set not so good, but I managed to come through," Murray told BBC Radio 5 Live.

606: DEBATE How far can Murray go in Russia?

"I've won a few matches the last three or four weeks so I'm feeling pretty confident but hopefully I can play better than I did today."

Murray's path to the title was made easier when the Croatian Marin Cilic stunned home favourite Davydenko 1-6 7-5 6-1.

But there was some potential controversy brewing after that particular match.

Daydenko said he was warned for not playing hard enough against the world number 102 by the chair umpire on Thursday.

"When I made a double fault, he gave me a notice for a wrong behavior on the court as if I was throwing the match," Davydenko said.

The ATP is currently investigating a match in Poland in which online gambling site Betfair voided bets on a match involving the Russian because of irregular betting patterns.

The top eight players in the ATP Champions Race earn places at the Masters Cup in Shanghai.

Murray lies 18th, 48 points behind the player in eighth.