Rafael Nadal did not bring his best tennis to the court in Miami last night and ended up being punished for it by world number 8, Juan Martín del Potro.

Del Potro looked every bit the stronger player in the opening set of the quarter-final match, playing Nadal at his own game with strong baseline shots and wide angles.  Nadal played a serious of bad shots and Del Potro thoroughly deserved to take the first set 6-4.

In the second set, Nadal found his groove, taking the set 6-3 with some sublime tennis and looking for all the world as if he was going to launch one of his famous comebacks.

At 5-6 and 15-40 down in the third set, facing two match points against him, the world number one saved the first with an ace and the second with a magnificent sliced shot at the net, only to double fault a few moments later and hand his opponent a

third match point.  Unbelievably, he saved this one with an ace as well, going on to win the game and force a tiebreak.In the tiebreak, Nadal failed to capitalise on some incredible good fortune with the net cord, and Del Potro, the stronger player on the night, took the match, his first victory over Nadal.

The other quarter final of the night held no joy for Spain either as Fernando Verdasco was blasted off court by Scotland's Andy Murray.

Murray, clearly intent on avenging his defeat by Verdasco in their last meeting in the Australian Open, came onto court looking like a man on a mission and quickly going 4-0 up.

Verdasco barely got a look-in the first set, which Murray took in just 33 minutes.

It was the same story in the second set, which Murray also won with ease.  Verdasco, suffering with back pain, called for the physiotherapist on various occasions, but there was nothing he could do to stop the Scotsman's onslaught.

Murray will now face del Potro in tomorrow's semi-final, with Federer and Djokovic fighting it out on the other side of the draw of the Sony Ericsson tournament.