Andy Murray: The Australian Open Hype Is Real

The pressure was on Andy Murray today at the Australian Open, having watched Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic ease into the fourth round yesterday.

With two of his rivals through, it was up to the fourth-seeded Scot to give the world another friendly reminder that he no longer gets riled.

Left-handed Austrian Jurgen Melzer stood in Murray’s way but amazingly, the Scot has only ever lost to one left-hander, and that was Rafael Nadal.

Murray started much better than he had in either of his first two round ties and broke Melzer in only his second service game to take a 3-1 lead. However, the Austrian then fought back with a break of his own to level the set at 4 games all.

Melzer’s fight back was short lived, however, with Murray closing out the first set 7-5.

From there on it was all Murray, with the 21-year-old showing the “favourites” form, taking the second set 6-0.

In fact, Murray won 11 games in a row, going 3-0 up in the third set before Melzer finally picked his chin off the hard court and held serve for the first time in six service games.

One final big effort to break the Murray serve succeeded by the 31st-seeded Austrian but the world No. 4, Murray, then closed the game out in less than convincing fashion but closed it out all the same.

7-5, 6-0, 6-3

Having watched Murray again today, it was obvious for all to see that he had stepped up a level from the previous two rounds and dealt with what was meant to be a tricky encounter with ease.

The hype is real, everyone. The Scot is not living on former glory or pretending to be someone he is not. The British press may have unleashed the beast, but Andy Murray is patting it on the nose.

The Brit has yet to drop a set and plays another left-hander next, in Spain’s Fernando Verdasco.

Andy Murray is here to stay. Go champ.