Local favourite Andy Roddick booked his place in the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami with victory over Benjamin Becker.
Roddick hits back from slow start to oust Becker
Local favourite Andy Roddick booked his place in the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami with victory over Benjamin Becker.
The sixth seed was pushed to the limit by the German in the opening set but the American edged the tie-break and then crucially broke in the sixth game of the second set to earn a 7-6 6-3 success.
Roddick will take on Spain's Nicolas Almagro in the last eight after he overcame Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4 3-6 7-6.
"He came out ready to play and I was kind of on my heels a little bit, but I was able to dig in and make it competitive in the second set," said Roddick, who was 4-1 down and 0-40 in the first set.
"I actually thought it could be a blessing in disguise if I come back from this... he'll be thinking how he could have been up two breaks and sometimes I think it could work to my advantage a little bit. I think it did."
Eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earned a place in the last eight with a 6-2 6-2 demolition of Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The Frenchman claimed two breaks of serve to take the first set and although he dropped his own serve in the next, he again dominated the Ferrero delivery to clinch three more breaks and an easy passage into the next round.
"I had some bad months before but now I'm coming back and I play better and better every day," he said. "I try to play to win and not to do a show, I just want to win now."
However, there was disappointment for giant-killer Mardy Fish, who suffered a recurrence of a knee injury and had to retire when down 6-1 1-0 to Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.
