Andy Murray has warned quarter-final opponent Andy Roddick that his newly discovered ability to bounce back from adversity could be decisive when the pair meet in the quarter-final of the Sony Ericsson Open.
The Scot was close to being eliminated by the powerful Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu but successfully defended two match points before completing a 2-6 7-5 6-3 victory to make his way to the last eight.
That win keeps Murray on course to surge into the world's top 10 after a wonderful start to 2007 for the 19-year-old.
Murray believes that that is just reward for his new-found tenacity and concedes he may not have been able to record such a win 12 months ago.
'I don't think I (would have) given up last year, I just wouldn't have found a way to win, and I've done that so far this year.
'I left it a little bit close today to turn it around, but it was one of those matches where you just had to keep hanging in. It's hard in these conditions.
'I felt like the most important thing was that I won the match, and that's what I can take away from it because I didn't feel like I did anything that well.'
'It wasn't like he choked on some shots badly or was getting really nervous. I felt like I kind of worked my way back into the match.'
The teenager is now looking to apply his confident approach to Roddick and has no worries about facing an opponent who he has competed well against in their head to heads.
'Obviously, Roddick, we've had some tight matches. It's been 3-2 to me I think.'
Third seed Roddick had no problems seeing off David Ferrer in their fourth-round encounter, winning 7-5 6-3 to set up the meeting.
Murray is also hoping to work on some of the things that failed to fire against Mathieu, with Roddick unlikely to allow the British number one back into the match if he starts in a similarly lacklustre fashion.
'I knew it was going to be difficult against him, and didn't start off too well,' he said.
'I was missing a lot of balls and didn't move too well.
'I started off the match when I was doing quite a bit of running, I just was hitting a lot of balls in the net not really choosing the right shot.'
The winner of the match will find their chances of winning the Masters Series event greatly improved after the elimination of the world's best player Roger Federer at the hands of Guillermo Canas.
The Argentina-born player became the first player of the year to defeat the Swiss in the Indian Wells tournament in California and completed a rare double over Federer with a 7-6 (7-2) 2-6 7-6 (7-5) victory.
