ANDY MURRAY believes his victory over Nikolay Davydenko at Indian Wells marked another important career step.

The 19-year-old Scot overcame the world No.4 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 and will now meet ninth-seeded German Tommy Haas, winner over Fernando Gonazlez, for the first time in the Pacific Life Open quarter-finals.

The victory saw Murray avenge his second-round loss to the Russian last year and he felt his ability to win the important points represented proof of further progress in his development.

Murray said: "All the best players have that ability on the big points to kind of adjust their game and to believe in their strokes.

"And it's something that I worked on a lot. I think it kind of showed that I have put a lot of work into it.

"And against someone like him, it's important because he's so tough. He's so tough when you get into rallies and I needed to serve well and I did that."

Murray did not have a great start as he was broken in the opening game but he responded well to open up a 3-2 lead by winning three in succession.

He even held three set-points at 0-40 in the 10th game, but was unable to convert any of them and needed a tie-break to take the set.

Murray's early break in the second set put him on course for victory and he held on despite being troubled in the eighth game.

"He surprised me a bit at the start. He came to the net more than I expected," said the Dunblane ace.

"I just had to try to hang in, maybe sliced a little bit too often in the first set and started hitting over my backhand. It's really hard to get someone like him out of his rhythm.

"I served quite a few aces and on the important points hit some big serves. I was a bit nervous at the end but managed to come through it."

Murray will be back in action in the doubles today when he and Tim Henman play top seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the third round.