British number one Cameron Norrie impressively came back from a set and a break down to defeat Japan's Taro Daniel and advance to the last 16 of the Indian Wells Masters.
The world number 12 recovered from losing the first-set tie-breaker with aplomb to prevail 6-7[5] 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 41 minutes to set up a clash with Andrey Rublev or Ugo Humbert.
Norrie and Daniel traded breaks in the opening two games of the match, but not a single break point was brought up in the subsequent games of the first set, where Norrie won just 40% of points behind his second serve.
The Briton nevertheless earned the first mini-break of the tie-breaker, but he squandered two chances to take the set as Daniel won four points on the bounce to glean a 1-0 advantage.
The world number 103 exploded out of the blocks in the second set, hitting plenty of winners en route to a break in game two, and he was seemingly on his way to a spot in the fourth round with a 4-1 lead in the second set.
However, Norrie found a second wind and won each of the next four games, but he was then broken again by Daniel while serving for the set before breaking straight back and holding to level the scores.
Clearly affected by letting victory slip out of his grasp, Daniel was broken twice in the first three games of the third set, although he still showed flickers of life and earned one break back.
The Japanese 30-year-old had just delayed the inevitable, though, as Norrie broke to love in game seven before firing an 11th ace of the day on match point to keep his California journey going.
Ben Knapton
