Andy Murray takes on Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin for a place in the Australian Open quarter-finals.
He wouldn't admit it, but Murray would not have been expecting to play Kukushkin in the last sixteen of a slam. The Kazakh saw off Viktor Troicki in the second round in a thrilling five setter before going the distance yet again to take out the in-form Gael Monfils. The Frenchman was carrying a slight injury which no doubt helped Kukushkin but before this week he'd never been past the second round of a slam so he deserves full credit.
Murray has already had a little taste of the Kukushkin game in 2012. He found him unexpectedly tough to handle in the first round of Brisbane a couple of weeks ago, recovering to win 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.
"He was very good when I played him," Murray said. "When I played him in Brisbane, the first six games he was unbelievable. He hardly missed a ball. He was hitting the ball huge, going pretty much down the line on every shot and cleaning lines."
"To me it's not that unexpected. I saw a little bit of the match today. I didn't quite know what was happening with Gaël. But, yeah, he's won a couple of long five-setters. He's obviously in good shape. Yeah, when I played him in Brisbane, he was hitting the ball very well."
The fourth seed has looked very good in the past two rounds and he produced some more aggressive tennis than usual to see off Michael Llodra in round three. A similar display should see Murray comfortably into the last eight.
