Andy Murray gave his hopes of qualifying for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London an almighty boost with a high-calibre win over David Ferrer to reach the final of the Valencia Open.
The Scot had to endure a major scare in the second set when he lost four straight games to go from 3-0 up to 4-3 down before regrouping to seal a 6-4 7-5 success over the top seed in just under two hours.
A single early break earned third-seed Murray the first set and his powerful serving and fierce ground strokes had him soon in control of the second.
Ferrer reversed the tide in impressive fashion, but his opponent showed plenty of grit, and no little skill, to stop the rot.
Murray went into the clash in eighth place in the Race to London standings, with ninth place now enough for a place at the O2 Arena after Rafael Nadal's withdrawal.
But Ferrer, in ninth, could have gone ahead of Murray with victory, and with Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov also firmly in the hunt, the heat was on the 2013 Wimbledon champion, especially give his tough draw at the one remaining event, the Paris Masters.
He could face Dimitrov in the last 16 and Novak Djokovic in the last eight there.
This was Murray and Ferrer's third meeting in three weeks, the British number one having beaten his rival in the final in Vienna after losing to the Spaniard in Shanghai.
The Scot got off to the best possible start, breaking in the opening game as Ferrer twice double-faulted.
Murray then held to love and kept the break advantage before fighting back from break-point down when serving for the set to clinch it 6-4.
Murray broke in the first game of the second set and took a 2-0 lead to leave his opponent up against it He broke again, only to hand the break straight back, surrendering a 30-15 advantage with a couple of errors.
Ferrer reduced the deficit to one game with his first service-hold of the set. Murray was sweating after he broke again and moved 4-3 in front and had to save break point to level at 4-4 and stem the tide.
A brilliant cross-court return put Ferrer one game away from the set, but Murray kept his cool to make it 5-5. He came through a brutal game to break for a 6-5 lead then fought back from 40-15 down to seal a crucial victory on his second match point.
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