Andy Murray battled into his sixth straight quarter-final of the Australian Open after a defeating tenth seed Grigor Dimitrov in four sets in his first night match.
The sixth seed defeated the Bulgarian in a tight 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 7-5 match and won five consecutive games to avoid a fifth set to make it into his 16th straight Grand Slam quarter final.
The Scot, 27, faces Australian teen Nick Kyrgios in the last eight who came back from two sets down against Roger Federer’s conqueror Andreas Seppi.
Murray said: “I thought I played well.
“He came out very aggressive and very explosive but it’s tough to keep that sort of level of intensity up.
“I felt like I was able to dictate a lot of the points.
“For a match that went three and a half hours, physically I felt way better than the last year or so.”
The match swung in favour of both players throughout but Murray managed to come back from 5-2 down in the fourth set to avoid what had appeared to be a likely fifth set contest.
The Bulgarian smashed his racquet in temper as Murray broke his serve to go 6-5 then held to take the victory.
Sunday’s last eight clash is much anticipated as Kyrgios made an impact with his shock fourth-round victory against Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last summer.
But Murray goes into the quarter-final match as the clear favourite despite being up against the home crowd and one of the most talented young players on the tour.
He said: “I would say maybe he’s more confident than I would have been at that age.
“I didn’t feel like I was going to win these events when I was that age.
“When you have the crowd behind you it obviously helps.”
Image courtesy of Australian Open TV, via YouTube, with thanks
