Roger Federer stayed on course for the year-end No. 1 battle after rallying past local favorite Jeremy Chardy for the BNP Paribas Masters last 16 on Wednesday, while Andy Murray moved on verge of qualifying for next month's World Tour Finals.

The world No. 2 Swiss missed two match points in the second set but wrapped it up 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-4 in a more comfortable way with two aces in the deciding game.

With 1,000 points up for grab this week in Paris, Federer, who came into the 2,884,675 euros tournament with a fresh victory from Basel last week, as well as that of another ATP Masters event in Shanghai earlier this month, is trying to keep heat on the current top-rated Serbian Novak Djokovic.

"I was expecting it to be difficult," said the 17-time Grand Slam champion at a post-match press conference. "Chardy has made it hard for me in the past."

"I thought it could be tough, and it was. I could have lost the first, I could have won the second, but it went the other way. So I think as the match went longer, the better I actually started to play and created more opportunities," he added.

Federer will vie for a quarterfinal slot against French qualifier Lucas Pouille, who upset the 16th seed Fabio Fognini of Italy, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7).

Earlier on Wednesday, it was much easier for British top netman Andy Murray to get past his first test in Paris, as the world No. 8 beat another Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-4 to move one victory away from qualifying for the Finals in London starting on Nov. 9.

The 27-year-old Scot was taken just one hour and 11 minutes in the second round, opening with a perfect serving game before he went on to lead 3-0 on the 32-year-old Benneteau's three double faults in the second game.

Murray broke serve again in the first game of the second set and winded it with a hold to love, though having lost his own serve in the sixth game.

The Valencia winner from last Sunday's ATP event in Spain needs to reach the quarterfinals in Paris to secure a berth to London.

He next plays the ninth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who destroyed Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 6-0, 6-3. Dimitrov also has a chance to qualify for the season-ending tournament.

"I served very well in the first set. There were no really long or physical rallies at all in the first set," said Murray after the match.

Seventh seed Milos Raonic of Canada also kept his London challenge alive with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4) win over American qualifier Jack Sock, and so did fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer who beat Belgian David Goffin 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

Other top seeds to join Murray and Federer in the third round are Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, who won for the first time in more than a month over Austrian wunderkind Dominic Thiem, and this year's U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori, who proved himself too strong for Spain's Tommy Robredo late on Wednesday.

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