Murray faces giant challenge

Andy Murray believes he is returning well enough to meet the giant-serving challenge of John Isner in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

The fifth seed continued his charge through the early rounds with another straight-sets victory yesterday as he beat Florent Serra 7-5 6-1 6-4 on Hisense Arena.

Murray will next face the 6ft 9in American Isner, who is the second tallest player on the tour and who possesses one of the most feared serves.

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Isner, the 33rd seed, booked his place in the fourth round of his second consecutive grand slam after upsetting 12th seed Gael Monfils 6-1 4-6 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/5).

Murray was faced with a similar task in the opening round when he easily handled Kevin Anderson, the tour's third tallest player, and yesterday he broke the 64th-ranked Serra's serve on seven occasions. "I have broken serve a lot so far this tournament against guys that have good serves," Murray said.

"Kevin Anderson is a good server. I returned well against him. I'm going to need that in the next match.

"Isner is playing really well. He won the tournament in Auckland last week.

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"The guy is 6ft 9in and he has if not the best serve on the tour.... I'll have to return well again."

In all three of his matches at Melbourne Park so far Murray has broken his opponent in their first service game.

He opened up 5-0 leads in his first two matches and was 3-0 ahead

before squandering his lead against Serra yesterday.

That allowed the Frenchman back into the set and Murray needed three breaks of serves to clinch it in 53 minutes as he was tested for the first time in the tournament.

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He responded emphatically to wrap up the final two sets in just over an hour, but Murray said his early breaks were crucial in asserting himself on a match.

"When you start the matches, you want to try to get off to a good start," Murray said.

"I have started well in all the matches so far. I put them under a lot of pressure by making all of my returns.

"I'll try to keep that up."

Before the tournament Murray attempted to play down expectations that he could claim his maiden grand slam title, instead claiming he first wanted to reach the fourth round and at least match his best result at the tournament.

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With that ambition achieved, the lure of a quarter-final against defending champion Rafael Nadal looms, but Murray steadfastly refused to think past his next task.

"I want to try to get through the next match," he said. "I've got to try to take care of that one first.

"Rafa's got some tough matches to play, as well. I'm sure he won't be focusing on playing me yet either."

Nadal himself endured a nervous night on Rod Laver Arena before eventually fending off the persistent challenge of Philipp Kohlschreiber in four sets. The Spanish second seed was below his best against the 27th-ranked German whose heavy hitting, especially off the backhand side, caused Nadal problems all night.

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In the end Nadal simply took his opportunities better to win 6-4 6-2 2-6 7-5 in three hours and 39 minutes, but admitted afterwards he was disappointed with his display.

"The most important thing is I won, so I am happy for that," he said. "I am less happy about my game, what I was practising but everybody has a not very good day."

The left-hander will play big-serving Croatian Ivo Karlovic in the next round after he defeated countryman and 24th seed Ivan Ljubicic 6-3 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7/9).

Reigning US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro was also forced to battle as he edged past unseeded German Florian Mayer 6-3 0-6 6-4 7-5 as the temperature in Melbourne peaked at 32 degrees Celsius.

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The Argentinian had needed five sets to overcome veteran American James Blake in the previous round and, after being stunned by Mayer in the second set, had to rally from 4-2 in the fourth to avoid going the distance again.

"Today, especially in the second set, I felt very confused with my game," Del Potro admitted.

"After that I improved a little bit but by the end I finished the match playing very good points."

Del Potro will face a seed for the first time in the fourth round where Marin Cilic awaits after he recovered from losing the first set to 19th seed Stanislas Wawrinka and win 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3. Andy Roddick's next match is against 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez, the 2007 runner-up, who needed five sets to beat Kazakhstan's Evgeny Korolev 6-7 (7/5) 6-3 1-6 6-3 6-4 in a match that lasted three hours and 42 minutes.