Andy Murray left the heat of the California desert beaten and disappointed but confident that his best tennis is just around the corner as he heads to the Miami Masters.

The Scot's 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 defeat by Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open ended his hopes of overtaking Roger Federer for the world No 2 spot this week.But with Federer not due to play another tournament until the Madrid Masters in May, Murray's chance to equal his career-high ranking, first achieved in 2009, should come before long.

Del Potro's power, precision and superior match tightness proved Murray's undoing in a match that lasted two-and-a-half hours and was played in temperatures in the mid-90s.

Murray arrived in Indian Wells not expecting to play his best but confident that swapping tournaments for training in February would stand him in good stead and so it proved as he ground his way through three matches to reach the last eight, albeit without ever looking totally fluent.

Del Potro, fully fit again after more problems with his left wrist, played as well as he has done in months and for a rusty Murray, he proved to be a bridge too far.

But compared to the past two years, when he left Indian Wells with a look of thunder on his face after first-match defeats, Murray is much more at ease with himself, the memory of his Olympic and US Open triumphs doubtless still fresh in his memory.

It was a shame that he missed out on a semi-final with world No 1 Novak Djokovic, but he and the Serb, who beat him to win the Australian Open title in January, are likely to meet again soon.

"Novak, I've obviously played a lot recently. Rafa [Nadal] would obviously be interesting to play against but I'm sure I'll get opportunities down the road to play against them," he said.

"I needed to play a match like today to see the things that I need to tighten up on so that hopefully next week if I get the opportunity to play Juan or Rafa or Novak, then I'll hopefully play a better match."

Murray was annoyed with himself for not playing better on the big points against Del Potro but said he was well on his way to rediscovering top form.

"I played some decent stuff against Del Potro," he said. "It just wasn't consistent enough. I didn't play well enough for a long enough period of time to win against a top player.

"It's good that I managed to get four matches here and a couple of doubles, which I haven't had the last couple of years and hopefully that will help me in Miami."

Murray said he had no regrets about training in Miami with his coach Ivan Lendl, rather than play more tournaments, confident it will pay off as the year goes on.

"It was the right thing to do, 100%," he said. "You have to look further down the road sometimes and not just focus on one event.

"The Tour is extremely hard and physical and I hope by taking a break now – I wasn't expecting to play perfect tennis this week or play my best – when I get to French Open, Wimbledon time, hopefully I'll be a bit fresher than I have been the past few years."

With an apartment in Miami and having practised regularly on the courts at Crandon Park, he has an advantage over many of the field for the Masters 1000 event, which begins next weekend. But the conditions in Florida are much heavier than California and Murray knows it will take a little time to readjust. "The first few days practising it does feel unbelievably slow," he said. "But I am feeling good."

Another player feeling good last night was Nadal, who booked his place in the final in Indian Wells with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Tomas Berdych. After seven months out through injury, the Spaniard made it three finals out of four in his comeback. "For me, this is completely unexpected to be here in the final," said Nadal. "I am very, very happy and very emotional."

Djokovic was due to take on Del Potro in the second semi-final last night.