MELBOURNE — Andy Murray stepped up his Australian Open campaign with a consummate straight-sets victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to reach the fourth round.
Fifth seed Murray was never in trouble as he forged a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 third round win over the Spanish 32nd seed on a warm day on Rod Laver Arena in 1hr 22min.
Last year's finalist Murray will now take on either Austrian 11th seed Jurgen Melzer or 2006 finalist Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in Monday's round of 16.
Murray destroyed Garcia-Lopez's serve with eight breaks and his serve was only broken once. He cracked a top serve of 205 kilometres (127 miles) per hour.
"I have played well in the first three matches and it's tough to concentrate in this heat. It was a lot harder than the scoreline suggests," the Scot said.
Murray trains in Miami and said his work on the athletics track has improved his fitness to play five sets after he faded in last year's Melbourne final against Roger Federer.
"The training in Miami has helped me a lot to prepare for the long five-set matches," said Murray, who is also accompanied in Melbourne by a physio and fitness trainer.
Murray last year became the first British man to reach the Australian Open final since John Lloyd in 1977 and he also reached the 2008 US Open final, where he also lost to Federer.
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