Andy Murray insists he is playing with the pressure off after reaching the French Open semi-finals.
Top seed Murray will take on former champion Stanislas Wawrinka for a place in the final while Rafael Nadal faces rising star Dominic Thiem on the other side of the draw.
Last year's runner-up arrived in Paris low on confidence, failing to go beyond the third round at clay court events in Rome, Madrid and Monte Carlo.
But with each match he has started to recover his swagger, dispatching Kei Nishikori 2-6, 6-1, 7-6, 6-1 in a quarter-final performance that gives reasons for optimism.
"I came in playing garbage, so I'm the odd one out in the semis and hopefully I can keep it up," said Murray.
"Rafa's had a great clay-court season and his record here is incredible. Thiem is really in form and Stan has played really well throughout the tournament. He's coming with loads of confidence too because he recently won in Geneva."
Murray played Wawrinka in the semi-final 12 months ago, emerging a winner in four sets before losing to Novak Djokovic in the final.
The pair have meet on 17 occasions and Murray edges their head-to-head record with ten wins, including their most recent two encounters.
"Obviously he's played fantastically at this tournament," he said. "Last year he was also playing really well and I had to play one of my best matches on clay to beat him.
"It will be tough but I'll fight as hard as I can. I'm happy to be in the semis again.
"It's not always been easy for me here but I've battled and showed lots of resilience."
Murray gut a pretty glum figure when he flew in to Paris, coughing and spluttering his way through his media commitments and admitting a lack of motivation since reaching world number one last season.
Reaching the latter stages looked improbable so, whatever happens against his Swiss rival, he'll be able to look back on this fortnight as a positive as he looks towards defending his Wimbledon title next month.
"If someone had offered me a semi-final spot before the tournament, I would have signed up for that because I was not playing well at all and practice also pretty terrible," said Murray, who will next play at the Aegon Championship at Queen's Club - an event he's won a record fives times in the last eight years.
"It's been really good so far and I want to keep going because physically I'm feeling great."
Sportsbeat 2017