Andy Murray will take on Thomas Berdych in the quarter finals of the Mutua Madrid Open, having survived a major scare in his third round battle with Giles Simon.

The world No 2 will have little time to rest ahead of his next match, having been pushed to the limit by the Frenchman in a hard fought 2-6 6-4 7-6 (8-6) repeat of the 2008 final that ran into early hours of the morning, concluding at approximately 1:15 am local time.

Andy Murray
Murray will take on Tomas Berdych in the quarter finals of the Madrid Masters. (Reuters)

Murray will not have long to wait for his quarter final encounter, and will take on world No 6 Berdych at 8pm on Friday night, but admitted he is frustrated that he didn't show enough experience against Simon to ensure a safer passage.

"My experience didn't really show because I had a lot of match points and had chances all the way through and couldn't quite get them," Murray told BBC Sport following the hard-fought win.

Murray climbed to second in the world rankings following Rodger Federer's shock defeat to 14<sup>th seed Kei Nishikori earlier on Thursday, but made things difficult for himself, getting off to a dismal start as he dropped his opening service game.

Simon moved into a comfortable lead after the Scot was also broken in his third service game, before the Frenchman clinched the opening set with relative ease.

Despite another poor start in the second set, Murray began to take control, breaking level at 2-2 before clinching the set on his fifth set point.

The relentless Simon showed no signs of relinquishing the game in the deciding set, forcing a final set break tie before battling back from three match points, until a volley fired into the net saw Murray claim the victory.

Murray's route to the quarter final stage has been a tiring one, having needed a pair of tie breaks to stave off the challenge of German Florian Mayer in the second round. In addition to the hectic schedule, Murray also admitted he struggled with the low bounce in his third round win.

"It is very different playing in the evening, the ball doesn't bounce particularly high," Murray told Sky Sports. "He was taking my time away and hitting close to the lines and making it very difficult.

"I managed to turn it around. I probably could have finished the third a bit quicker if I had taken some of my chances but he fought."