British fifth seed advances to quarters with 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 rout of Austrian

MELBOURNE - Andy Murray said he was ready for tougher challenges ahead after a surprisingly comfortable straight-sets win over Jurgen Melzer to advance to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open on Monday.

The British fifth seed dropped only five games as he dished out a 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 hammering of the Austrian 11th seed in 1hr, 44min on Rod Laver Arena.

Murray will now take on Ukraine's unseeded Alexandr Dolgopolov in Wednesday's quarters.

Murray, who squandered five set points in a 13-11 third-set tiebreak to lose to Roger Federer in last year's Melbourne final, said he was ready for the big matches at the championship end of the tournament.

"I feel good. The matches are definitely going to get tougher," he said.

"I'm not expecting to go through the tournament winning matches with that score-line, so I'm ready for that mentally when it does get tough."

Murray, who choked back tears last year as he apologized to British fans for failing to win Britain's first male Grand Slam since 1936, said he was hitting the ball well and had been staying strong at this year's event.

"Whether there have been tight moments, like today it was right at the beginning of the match when he went up a break, I've been staying strong," he said.

"I've been moving well. Today I hit the ball the best I had done of the first few matches. It's been a very good start, but it's going to get much tougher," he warned.

Murray was expecting more of a tussle with Melzer, who despite his heavy defeat is projected to enter the top 10 when the new listings are released after the Open.

Melzer took him to five sets in the third round at the 2008 US Open after winning the opening two sets but lost to the Scot in the third round of the 2009 Australian Open.

"I've played Jurgen in the Slams a few times, including here two years ago, and I was expecting a tough match and I was surprised by beating him in three sets," Murray said.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 01/25/2011 page24)