Murray secures quarter-final clash with Nishikori after Kukushkin retires hurt

British women's No 3 Elena Baltacha was moved to remark following her Australian Open first round loss that winning tennis matches is not as easy as Andy Murray makes it look.

Certainly he could not have made this tricky business appear much more comfortable since that initial struggle in the first round against American Ryan Harrison.

Having brushed aside Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Michael Llodra he completely hammered Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin in the fourth round, taking 49 minutes to move ahead 6-1, 6-1, 1-0 before the world No 92 retired with a hip injury.

Easy does it! Murray reached the quarter-finals with little fuss after Kukushkin retired hurt

Clearly that made it something of a
non-event, but you can only beat what is in front of you and Murray hit
the ball supremely cleanly in conducting a complete rout.

Murray was given what looks like a
bonus later in the day when Japanese number one Kei Nishikori sprung
something of an upset to become his next opponent by beating world
number six Jo Wilfried Tsonga 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Not only that, but the three and a
half hours it took in the heat of the day are likely to have taken a
toll on the fast-improving 22 year-old, who now finds himself in his
first Grand Slam quarter final.

Nishikori, his country’s best ever
player and a product of the Nick Bollettieri academy in Florida, is a
surprisingly powerful baseliner ranked 26 in the world who will now go
into the top twenty, regardless of how he fares against Murray.

The surge in his ranking over the
past 12 months has been largely down to increased fitness levels, but
however well he is playing he would still rate as a decent draw in the
last eight of a Major.

The key thing on a day when the
mercury exceeded 30 degrees was to get on and off court as quickly as
possible to conserve energy and the world number four did a superb job
of that in the blasting heat of the early afternoon.

Too much to take: Kukushkin covers his face as injury pain mounts while Murray (below) looks serene while taking a drink at the arena in Melbourne

That is helpful as it will surely get
tougher now, with Murray awaiting the winner of sixth seed Jo Wilfried
Tsonga and the fast improving Japanese number one Kei Nishikori. Murray
was in and out of a cool shower by the time his two prospective
opponents had divided the first two sets.

'It was really hot out on the court
and it was great for me to have saved that energy,' said Murray
afterwards. 'I played him a couple of weeks ago in Brisbane and it was a
tough three setter and I expected another tough one today. I hadn't
seen him play before and he hit some huge shots early on that made me
work so it’s good to have got through it.'

Although there was not much to beat
on the day it was further evidence of what Murray is trying to do under
the tutelage of Lendl, namely to be more aggressive and take the ball
on.

'I'm trying to play closer to the
baseline, take some time away from the opponent. When you’re playing
further back there is less on the shot. Ivan’s been very positive and
it’s given me confidence that he wants to work with me.'

Murray's movement up the court was
most evident in him clambering all over Kukushkin’s serve, taking it
early and well inside the baseline to devastating effect, landing in 42
out of 47 returns. The result was that he did not hold serve once, and
whatever he was feeling in his hip – his movement appeared fine at first
– it was making him feel worse.

Murray in a hurry: The British No 1 made light work of his Kazakh counterpart

While a few Borat jokes were flying
around Kukushkin is actually a Russian tennis player, but has been
encouraged to represent cash-rich Kazakhstan in the Davis Cup – a
Plastic Kazakh if you like. Another unusual thing about him is that he
is coached by his wife Anastasia.

He hits the ball nice and flat but
was in trouble right from the start in what was Murray’s first
appearance on the Rod Laver Arena of the tournament. The 24 year-old
Scot broke him to love in the very first game and then kept on repeating
the dose, with Kukushkin calling out the trainer following the fifth
game.

'Unfortunately my last two games went five sets and I paid for that,' he said afterwards.

The two completed sets were almost
identical, both lasting 22 minutes and containing searing winners from
Murray. The one blot on his performance was a poor service game in each
that saw him broken before normality was resumed.

After he had broken him once more at
the start of the third Kukushkin walked up at the changeover to offer
his hand in resignation.

Murray described the match as
'boring', so much so that he went out for a further practice once his
media commitments for the day were finished. Lendl and Team Murray
amused themselves by covering the fixed camera by their seats with a
towel and a cap, making it slightly resemble a human head.

'Not much was happening out there but
I’ll take that,' said Murray. 'He was bouncing around before the match
but it was only after three games that I saw he wasn’t moving that
well.'

So an unexpectedly comfortable
afternoon for Murray. He is playing well, but then it must be said that
the three players above him the rankings (Novak Djokovic was due to take
on Lleyton Hewitt in the night session) have also looked in supremely
good nick, so no assumptions should be made.

Watching brief: Murray's other half Kim Sears takes in the action while fans show their support (below)