Mike Russell produced a stirring fightback to get the better of his friend and fellow American Taylor Dent in an epic Centre Court battle at Coral Beach last night.

After being unable to find a way to cope with Dent's ferocious serving in the first set, Russell clawed his way back to earn a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory to move into the quarter-finals of the XL Capital Bermuda Open.

It was a clash of styles - the tall serve-and-volleyer Dent against the determined, fleet-of-foot baseliner Russell - and provided an enthusiastic crowd with an hour and 43 minutes of high-class entertainment.

Russell is well acquainted with Dent, something he said had made it no easier to play against him.

"We practise a lot together at tournaments, so it felt like I was playing against a friend and that's always tough to do," said Russell.

"Taylor's still very young and he's playing well and he'll be a top 20 player for sure."

Dent, conqueror of Bermuda's James Collieson in the first round, looked unbeatable early on.

He showed how he produced the fastest serve at Wimbledon last year - 144 miles per hour - as he pummelled down a series of unreturnable bombshells.

When number seven seed Russell did manage to get one back, Dent was invariably in position to put away an easy volley.

Dent also managed to put his opponent's serve under pressure and clinched the only break he needed to take the first set in the fourth game when Russell served a nervous-looking double fault on break point.

"In the first set I was getting concerned because he served a really high percentage and he seemed to have an answer for everything," said Russell.

"I started off real slow. Then he started to get less first serves in and that gave me a chance. After I got the break in the second set, it was a whole different match. I lasted well and I think my fitness is pretty good now."

The tide began to turn as Dent showed his erratic side, hitting the spot with progressively fewer first serves and fluffing the odd volley.

Across the net, Russell simply got better and stronger as the match went on, despite some treatment from the trainer in the second set on his left foot.

Afterwards, Russell, denying any serious problem, said of the strapping on the foot: "It was just precautionary."

Certainly he had few problems scrambling around the court, regularly drawing gasps from the fans by retrieving the seemingly unretrievable in the fashion which made him a crowd favourite on his run to the semi-finals here last year.

The turning point came in the sixth game of the second set when Russell broke to love to take a 4-2 lead.

The smaller man hung on to his own serve doggedly to force a third set and seized control of the match by breaking Dent in the opening game of the final set.

The fatigued Dent dug deep to fight back from 40-15 down to break back in the sixth game, tying it up at 3-2.

But Russell responded by taking the next two games without dropping a point to move within sight of victory.

Although the battling Dent managed to save two match points, Russell finally sealed his triumph when Dent's lunging forehand volley dropped wide and he will face another tough match in the last eight when he comes up against number three seed Hyung-Taik Lee.