Murray dips into his bag of tricks

Popular pre-tournament pick Andy Murray is showing that that all the accolades that were showered on him before the Australian Open fortnight might not have been wishful thinking after all.

In another standout performance, the 22-year-old Scot took a fairly routine 7-5 6-1 6-4 victory over France’s Florent Serra in third round on Friday. The world number five has yet to drop a set in the tournament, largely due to his clean, thoughtful play.

Mixing both power and precision, Murray survived a number of impressive flurries from Serra early on, and then quickly closed the door. He served big, returned effectively, was efficient at the net and won most of the critical points off the ground.

“I'm happy to have won in three sets in all of the matches,” he said. “It's important to have tight situations in matches like the first set today where, it got quite close at points. Against [Marc] Gicquel, like in the third set, it got close. Came through all the sort of tough moments in the match, as well. But I'm happy to save as much energy as possible. Today was hot. So it was nice to get off the court quickly.”

Murray is attempting to become the first British man to win a Grand Slam title in 74 years and clearly, the pressure of his nation is on his talented shoulders. Last year in Melbourne, Fernando Verdasco stunned him, and while he didn’t have a standout year at the 2009 majors, he did manage to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals, where Andy Roddick out-toughed him.

Murray won six titles in 2009 and briefly reached the No. 2 ranking. Much fitter than he was when he first came on tour, Murray no longer has to just rely on just guile to win matches, as he can crack his serve and power groundstrokes.

He registered 49 winners to only 26 from Serra, and won 81 per cent of his first serve points.

Murray will face the red-hot American John Isner, the Auckland champion who took out Gael Monfils, in the next round. It will be a tall task for Murray, as Isner not only owns one of the tour’s most feared serves, but has improved his net game and forehand a ton.

“I want to try and get through the next match,” Murray said. “Isner is playing really well. The guy is 6'9" (and) has (one of the best) if not the best serve on the tour