Aljaz Bedene won his third match against Marius Copil at the Gazprom Hungarian Open on Monday.
The World No. 57 saved all three break points against him, winning 6(3)-7, 7-5, 6-3.
The tournament in Budapest has only existed for two years yet in that time the Slovenian and Romanian have gone head-to-head three times.
The 28-year-old beat Copil in the final round of qualifying last year as well as the first round of the main draw. The 28-year-old went on to play in the ATP World Tour final.
Elsewhere, Italian Marco Cecchinato defeated Mirza Basic 6-3, 6-4, having lost three of his previous clashes with the Bosnian World No. 89.
John Millman for Australia also beat Moldovan Radu Albot 6-4, 7-5.
Ben McLachlan and Jan-Lennard Struff joined forces in the doubles for a third time this season to defeat Hans Podlipnik-Castillo and Andrei Vasilevski 7-6(5), 6-1.