Second seed Rafael Nadal and emerging British prospect Andy Murray survived tough tests to reach the Cincinnati Masters quarter-finals on Thursday.
Nadal battled past German Tommy Haas 7-6, 6-3 and Murray followed up his win over world number one Roger Federer by recovering from 4-2 down in the final set to beat American Robby Ginepri 7-6, 2-6, 6-4.
American ninth seed Andy Roddick will play Murray next after he beat Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3 6-4 in the late match.
French Open champion Nadal meets Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero, who knocked out Swede Robin Soderling 7-5, 6-4.
"It's going to be a tough match," Nadal said. "He's a very good player. I need to play my best tennis.
"(Today) I played a good match. I felt comfortable on court. I am happy because I was beginning the match very well. I was playing my best tennis in the first games."
In the most humid conditions of the week, Haas led 5-3 in the tiebreak only for the Spaniard to win four consecutive points to take the opening set.
Games went with serve in the second set until the eighth when Nadal broke to love.
DUG DEEP
The 19-year-old Murray dug deep to dismiss Ginepri, a semi-finalist at last year's U.S. Open.
Playing his 13th match in 16 days, the Scot led 3-1 before he was pegged back to 3-3.
Murray saved two set points at 4-5 and went on to snatch the tiebreak 7-3.
Ginepri rallied to take the second set and led 4-2 in the decider but a revitalised Murray broke twice to set up a meeting with Roddick.
"That's the most tired I've been on a tennis court," Murray said. "That was my 13th match in 16 days and I am just not used to it. My legs weren't there today. Going into the third set I really didn't think I was going to win, but I just tried to keep fighting.
"At the end I wasn't thinking what I was doing. I was just trying to get the ball back into court and chase every ball down, not thinking tactically or anything."
Murray beat Roddick on the way to his first ATP title in February and knocked him out at Wimbledon in June.
"He's gotten me twice this year, especially at Wimbledon -- that was probably the match I felt worst about afterwards," Roddick said.
"He's a very, very good tennis player. He sees the court well and has great feel for the game. He's been on a bit of a hot streak. So unlike the two times before we've played, people might give him the edge right now.
"It will be a little bit of a different match. I feel like I'm hitting the ball better right now than I have going into any of the other two matches against him."
Fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic beat Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 7-5, 6-4 and next faces seventh seed Tommy Robredo of Spain.
Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez also advanced after a 7-6, 7-5 win over unseeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. He will play Spain's David Ferrer, who beat Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-5, 6-4.
