Spain's Fernando Verdasco ended fourth seed Andy Murray's Australian Open campaign with a 2-6 6-1 1-6 6-3 6-4 victory on Monday to advance to his first grand slam quarter-final.

Verdasco became the first left hander, other than world number one Rafa Nadal, to beat Murray in a grand slam and also notched his first victory in six matches against the Briton.

The 21-year-old Scot, one of the pre-tournament favourites and widely tipped to end Britain's 73-year wait for a men's singles grand slam champion, produced flashes of brilliantly controlled tennis but also made numerous elementary errors.

On several occasions throughout the match he chastised himself, at one point in the fourth set screaming "what the hell are you doing?".

The match was a see-saw affair with both men thrashing the other in the opening two sets before Murray seemed to have gathered momentum in the third when he took it 6-1.

The Hisense Arena crowd, the majority of whom seemed to be supporting Murray, then broke into renditions of the Scottish national anthem "Flower of Scotland" and chants of "if you love Andy Murray stamp your feet".

Murray, however, failed to capitalise and Verdasco broke in the second game of the fourth set and held on to the advantage to stretch the match into a decider.

The pair held serve until the sixth game of the fifth set when Verdasco saved two break points and produced several big serves to hold.

The Spaniard, who let out a loud yawp of excitement at the end of that game, broke Murray in the next game to give himself a 4-3 lead and when he held serve in the eighth as he sensed an upset was on the cards.

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