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 Kevin Mitchell at Melbourne Park 

 

 

Andy Murray can hardly believe his luck at this Australian Open. Since he struggled for rhythm in the first set of his first match, against the lively American teenager Ryan Harrison, his game has clicked in felicitous syncopation with the struggle of others and he moves into the quarter-finals against Kei Nishikori on the back of a mere 49 minutes against the hobbling Mikhail Kukushkin that provided him with little more than a hit-up.

While Murray was crushing Kukuskhin, 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 – before the 92nd-ranked player in the world limped off Rod Laver Arena with a seized-up left hip – the ever-improving Nishikori, 24th seed here, was embarking on a three and a half hour battle of endurance with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on the Hisense Arena. He had to grind out a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win of high drama in mid-afternoon heat that hovered around the century. It was his second five-setter of the tournament, and followed his four-set match (with two tie-breaks) against Tsonga's French compatriot Julien Benneteau.

The disparity was not lost on Murray, who hit Kukushkin off the court with the sort of ruthlessness his new coach Ivan Lendl would have relished.

Murray said of Nishikori: "I saw a little bit of the match. Kei is playing really, really well. I practised with him a few times. He's very good, very deceptive. For somebody that's not the tallest guy he creates a lot of power from the back of the court. He deals with pace well. He can slice. He moves well. 

"He was hitting a lot of winners out there. He was dictating all the points from the back of the court which is difficult against someone like Tsonga. He's won a few long matches here as well. I saw him in the gym a lot [during the Brisbane International]. I think he's gotten in better shape as well."

Nishikori is the first male Japanese player to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open since Ruyosuki Nunoi and Jiro Satoh both managed it in 1932. The last Japanese player to reach the quarters of a slam tournament was Shuzo Matsuoka at Wimbledon in 1965. "He will have an entire nation backing him," said Murray, who knows a little about that.

As for his own progress in the first week Murray said: "Today's match, I didn't [have to] do much. But I thought each round I have played a little bit better. I didn't feel good at all in my first match, managed to get through, and then I started serving better, so that's good. I'll definitely be fresh for the next few rounds hopefully."

Murray hit 56 clean winners against his immobilised opponent, although dropped serve once in each set as his concentration wavered slightly.

The world No4 said he noticed nothing wrong with Kukushkin when hitting up on an outside court alongside him in the morning but it became clear after three games that he was in trouble.

"I thought it was best he retired," Murray said, "because it was pointless. He wasn't running. The people probably weren't enjoying the match that much. I certainly wasn't because nothing was happening. It was boring."

But, he conceded, hardly demanding. "At this stage of the tournament to be off the court in 45 minutes or so isn't bad. It's perfect because you conserve energy. I just need to hit enough balls to make sure I don't lose rhythm. There was no rallies out there, I have to move around a bit so I don't stiffen up. But you can't look at it as a negative."

The bare bones of his match tell little, given the circumstances, but Murray certainly hit cleanly through the ball and, in the main, with killing precision. He powered down on his serve and just waited for Kukushkin to disintegrate.

He has played his first four games during the day, but is confident his fitness will carry him through any more matches in the killing heat. "It sometimes depends who you're playing against," he said. "I don't mind."

It was a day of obvious disappointment for the loser – who, as a Russian who emigrated to Kazakhastan only four years ago to further his career, is not altogether happy with the Borat jokes – and relative levity for the winner.

He noticed with everyone else on the centre court that Lendl had drapped a towel and cap over the courtside camera that focused on Murray's box. Was that because he was shy or the practical joker of legend, he was asked?

"The camera is one inch from your face when you're watching the match [from the box]," Murray said. "I thought that it was a person at first, and then I saw the thing doing a full rotation with the head. I didn't know it was him that had done it until after the match. But that's just the sort of thing he does. He showed me a message from his wife. She said that, yeah, that [stunt] had his signature written all over it. He's been doing that for years."

Such rapport could provide incremental help in the second week, because Murray will need everything to keep going his way if he is to get past an almost certain date with Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals. Djokovic is scheduled to play wildcard Australian Lleyton Hewitt, a little way past his best, in the night game.

As for the camera, Murray wondered if it was fair for it to be trained so closely on the box and the players' trainers.

"If they're going to put a camera there, they should at least use it for the benefit of the umpire [to catch people] who are blatantly coaching. There have been a few weird decisions the last few days. I saw one [on Sunday], [Tomas] Berdych getting a warning for coaching. A few others have been too. The umpires have been speaking to the players saying: 'You need to stop getting coaching.'

"I don't know how anyone knows what's getting said, to be honest. There's a lot of different languages out there. Unfortunately English is spoken most places, so we can't really get away with the coaching."

It was to be assumed he was joking – and clearly there has been a lot of that within Team Murray since Lendl's arrival.