Andy Murray faces Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in Saturday's action on day six of the Australian Open.
Murray faces one of the most improved players over the past twelve months in Garcia-Lopez. The Spaniard reached the top 30 for the first time in his career back in the autumn and stunned the world by knocking out recently crowned US Open champion Rafael Nadal on the way to the Bangkok title.
He now has a string of top ten upsets to his name and Murray will not be taking his place in the second week for granted. "He's playing very well just now, the last sort of seven, eight months," the fifth seed said. "He's a very solid player. He does everything well and he's improved his game on hard court. So it's going to be a tough match."
Murray has won both his matches very comfortably, but he is expecting a very different sort of match on Saturday. "It's been quite tough in the first couple of rounds, coming up against guys who have been going for huge shots really early in the rally. I haven't been able to dictate too much, yet I've won pretty comfortably,” he explained.
"No disrespect to the players who are ranked below you but, if they are playing against someone who is ranked higher, they do go for their shots and take a lot of chances. That's what has happened in the first two rounds.”
"But Lopez is top 30 in the world, very solid, won't make too many mistakes. He makes it difficult for you but doesn't hit the ball that big, so I don't think he will be going for his shots too much. That will hopefully give me more of a chance to play more aggressively and dictate more of the play.”
Murray won their only previous match 6-4, 6-4 at Queens two years ago. Expect him to be challenged more but it will still be a surprise if he drops a set.
