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World No.1 and now outright favourite to take out his first Australian Open Andy Murray faces a tricky challenge in the third round, taking on big-serving American Sam Querrey. Join The Roar for live scores of the match from around 2pm (AEDT).
With Novak Djokovic getting defeated in a five-hour epic on the Rod Laver Arena yesterday afternoon by Denis Istomin, Murray is now the absolute certain favourite to finally break his Australian Open duck.
While Murray was in good form leading into the Australian Open, taking out the tournament in Doha and he hasn’t yet dropped a set in his first two matches it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for the first seed.
Defeating Illya Marchenko was always going to be easier said then done, and even though he got the first round out of the way in three sets, the first two were still taken to 7-6 and 7-5 before he took the third 6-2.
The second round was another straight sets victory, this time against qualifier Andrey Rublev but even though the scoreboard will suggest it was a stronger win, Murray rolled his ankle during the match and will have a weak spot there for the rest of the tournament.
Given Murray relies on his defence and changes of direction so far, especially against powerful players like Querrey it could put him in a spot of bother.
Of course, the equation for Murray would look far worse if Querrey was actually in any form. After finishing 2016 in disastrous fashion, losing all of his last five matches including a first round bomb out at his home grand slam he kicked off 2017 in Brisbane.
Things didn’t get any better for the big-serving American as he fell to Diego Schwartzman in straight sets in his only match before the grand slam.
Drawn Quentin Halys in the first round, he finally started to show some signs of life after dropping a first set tie-breaker, eventually closing it out in four before getting the better of youngster Alex De Minaur.
Despite Querrey showing signs of life, Murray is a completely different battle and unless he can get off to a fast start, the scoreboard could turn ugly.
The pair have played on eight previous occasions, Murray winning seven of them although the last of those was in 2014. The winner will take on either Mischa Zverev or Malek Jaziri in the fourth round.
Prediction
This is going to be an uphill battle for Querrey with Murray’s incredible defences, but Murray is concerned about the ankle and that could well make life difficult.
Querrey should put his power to good use and pick up something to take out of the match, but it won’t be an advancement to the fourth round.
Murray in five sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this third round match at the Australian Open from around 2pm (AEDT) or at the completion of Angelique Kerber vs Kristyna Pliskova and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde