Murray Strolls On

On course for a semi-final showdown with Nadal; Soderling falls by the wayside.

For a second straight year at the Australian Open Austria’s Jurgen Melzer lost to Andy Murray in straight sets. The fifth seed has now advanced to the quarterfinals,setting up a possible semifinal with Nadal. “I don’t want to get carried away,” Murray said after his 6-3,6-1,6-1 win over Jurgen Melzer of Austria. “I’ve never won one of these things before.”

Murray,who knows that feeling about not having won a Grand Slam,has lost just 22 games in four matches. “I’m not expecting to go through the tournament winning matches like that,with that scoreline,” Murray said. “I’m ready for that mentally when it does get tough.”

Before Murray gets a potential crack at Nadal,he’ll face an unexpected quarterfinal rival after 22-year-old Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov had an upset 1-6,6-3,6-1,4-6,6-2 win over fourth-seeded Robin Soderling,ending the French Open finalist’s eight-match winning streak.

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“He’s got a very unorthodox game,very different to most of the guys on the tour,” Murray said of Dolgopolov. “He has a game that can make you play strange shots or not play that well.”

Dolgopolov said his father,Oleksandar,worked as a coach for the likes of Andrei Medvedev,so he sometimes hit with the players when they were practicing and the family was on tour.

“For sure I had some good times. I was a bit maybe annoying for some players to play with me,” he said. “It was nice to start a tennis career like that.”

Meanwhile,the “Rafa Slam” is still alive after Rafael Nadal beat Marin Cilic 6-2,6-4,6-4 on Monday to maintain his chance of owning all four Grand Slam trophies at once. He hasn’t dropped a set through four rounds at Melbourne Park,despite carrying the effects of a virus he picked up two weeks ago in Qatar.

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“Before the match I was a little bit nervous,” Nadal said. “I know how aggressive he can play. I think I played my best match this year here at the Australian Open.”

No. 7 David Ferrer set up a quarterfinal match against fellow Spaniard Nadal with his 4-6,6-2,6-3,6-4 win over 20-year-old Canadian qualifier Milos Raonic,who’d upset No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny in the third round.

Soderling bows out

Robin Soderling hadn’t dropped a set during his surge that started with his run to the title at the Brisbane tuneup event. He dominated the opening set but couldn’t keep it up against Dolgopolov,who was coming off a five-set win over former Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Dolgopolov’s cross-court backhand to bring up his first match point was typical of the 50 winners he hit against a stunned Soderling,the highest of the seeded players knocked out of the men’s draw. Soderling saved three match points,but his run came to an end with his 51st unforced error.