Murray overcomes battling Seppi

Murray lacked fluency and consistency against his Italian opponent

Andy Murray was made to work hard before beating Andreas Seppi 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 to book a spot in the World Tennis Tournament quarter-finals in Rotterdam.

The Briton blew away the world number 36 in the first two games but needed a tie-break to settle the opening set.

The Italian 24-year-old never stopped working and raced ahead in the second, before Murray regained his composure and temper to edge the second set.

Murray will next play France's number 55 in the world Marc Gicquel on Friday.

Seppi went into this match with a 100% record against the world number four, having won their only previous match at the Nottingham Open in 2006.

Murray grabbed the opening two games in the blink of an eye and it seemed this would be a routine victory for the 21-year-old Scot.

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The Italian raised his energy levels and forced a lacklustre Murray into a number of errors to take the first set to a tie-break.

Seppi's head could have gone down after losing the opener but he took full advantage of an increasingly wayward and tempestuous opponent and grabbed a 3-1 lead in the second.

In an intriguing battle the pair slugged it out to 5-5 but Murray stayed firm and broke Seppi's serve before squeezing through to take the victory.

Other second round winners were France's Gael Monfils, Croatia's Mario Ancic and Murray's next opponent Gicquel - a late entry into the tournament to replace injured Swede Robin Soderling.

Top seed Rafael Nadal plays Bulgarian 17-year-old Grigor Dimitrov, the reigning junior US Open and Wimbledon champion later on Thursday.