Scotland's Andy Murray survived a major scare to book his place in the last eight of the Valencia Open.

Murray - in his first tournament in nearly two months - looks obviously rusty and struggled to find his groove against Argentina's Leonardo Mayer, a player ranked 60 places below him.

The 22-year old world number four and top seed finally progressed 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and will now face home hope Albert Montanes in the quarter-finals, following his win over defending champion David Ferrer.

Elsewhere, Fernando Verdasco boosted his hopes of making the season end ATP Tour World Finals in London with a straight sets victory over Janko Tipsarevic.

While there were also wins for second seed Nikolay Davydenko and Tommy Robredo.