LONDON, July 7 -- Defending champion Andy Murray defeated Italy's Fabio Fognini 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon here on Friday.

The world No. 1 had to hold off some tough challenges from the world No. 29 after two hours and 39 minutes. He will play Frenchman Benoit Paire for a quarterfinal berth on Monday.

"When you are playing a guy who has all of the shots like him, it's difficult," Murray said. "He generates power with very short swings - it' s difficult to see when he's going to hit the ball big. He was taking me out of my rhythm.

"Obviously the end of the match was tense, I maybe saved five set points there. Then a tight game to break him as well at the 5-5 game. And then I served it out really well to finish, but it was a very up and down match. I didn't feel like it was the best tennis at times. It was a little bit tense today but I managed to get through."

Fognini tweaked his ankle in the middle of the third set and hobbled about for a bit before he opted to call the trainer. But by that point he was already a break of serve down and within moments of getting back to work, he was two breaks down.

The Italian moved better after having his ankle taped and he was backing himself to take risks. He earned five set points to take the match to a deciding set.

From 5-2 down, the champion dragged himself back to 5-5 and then took another two games to seal the victory. Enditem