Andy Murray stayed on course at the Erst Bank Open in Vienna by battling into the quarter-finals with a 4-6 6-2 6-2 victory against dangerous Frenchman Gilles Simon.
The 29-year-old Wimbledon and Olympic champion, who is closing in on Novak Djokovic's top ranking, stretched his winning streak to 13 matches and took his season record to 67 wins and just nine losses.
But the 2014 champion in Vienna was made to recover from a set down in a marathon match which lasted two hours and 40 minutes as Murray commit an uncharacteristic 58 unforced errors, although Simon was almost as sloppy, hitting just three fewer.
After crumbling when serving to stay in the opening set on a frustratingly slow court, a weary-looking Murray had to save six break points in the second game of the second set before striking in the next game, which lasted an astonishing 14 minutes and 30 seconds.
But world No 24 Simon wasn't going away and struck immediately straight back to level at 2-2.
Murray, however, went on to win the next four games to level the match and after the Frenchman received treatment for a blister on his right foot before the start of the deciding set, the British No 1 upped the ante.
Despite hanging on for 2-2, Murray repeated the punishment he dished out in the second set to take the match as Simon wilted under increasing pressure.
Victory helped Murray set up a meeting against big-hitting American John Isner on Friday, live on Sky Sports.
Murray's best chance of taking the world No 1 spot will be to capture his seventh title of the year in Vienna, where he was champion in 2012, as well as next week's trophy at the Paris Masters.
In the French capital, Djokovic would have to reach the final to stay in pole position.
Murray v Djokovic: The race is on
Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic: Their previous meetings
Australian Open and French Open champion Djokovic has spent a total of 222 weeks at No 1 in three spells - including his current run of 121 consecutive weeks.
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In the day's other matches, home favourite and third seed Dominic Thiem was upset by Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-2 7-5 while sixth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 and Spain's Albert Ramos defeated Austrian veteran Jurgen Melzer, 3-6 6-4 6-0.
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