Australian Open: Andy Murray demolishes Sam Groth, enters third round

World No. 2 Andy Murray quickly hushed parochial Australian fans baying for a major upset here on Day 4 of the Australian Open, demolishing star struck local hope Sam Groth in straight sets.

No. 32-seeded Joao Sousa beat Santiago Giraldo 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 and will play Murray in the next round.

“I gave everything I had like always, that’s something I can always be proud of”, he said.

“Today was definitely for me more mental than physical so I’m happy I was able to show some growth in that area”, Keys said. “I think it’s cool”.

Groth is credited with the fastest recorded serve of 263km per hour, which he hammered at an ATP Challenger event in South Korea in May 2012.

The Australian began to get his game together but Murray still got his fifth service break to take a two sets to love lead when Groth’s crouching volley was wide on break point. He’s nearly the opposite to Groth really. “But I can still get better”, Murray said. “I’ll play a lot of long rallies, I’ll hit a lot of balls”.

“It helps to see someone’s game”.

“This is maybe the third time I played him here and we also played at the French a year ago”. Thank you for the great rival we have had, the good and the bad.

Murray repelled Groth’s huge deliveries, picked off the world No. 67 at the net and authored winning lobs with his opponent left stranded. Good athlete. He wins. “He wins. He knows how to win matches”.

Third-seeded Garbine Muguruza, the 2015 Wimbledon finalist, advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Kirsten Flipkens, No. 7 Angelique Kerber beat Alexandra Dulgheru 6-2, 6-4 and No. 15 Madison Keys beat Yaroslava Shvedova 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3.

Against Murray his first ace did not arrive until the second game of the second set, by which time he was already reeling from a slow start punished by the 28-year-old Scot.

When Murray completed victory, Sears was undergoing tests with a cardiologist but Jamie Murray told Press Association Sport the 58-year-old was “conscious, talking and sitting up”. “There’s nerves from everybody – my parents, myself, hundreds of people around me and obviously the situation as it is in the match”.

“But that’s normal and I’m going to encounter that every single time I play”.

“It just really didn’t sound so good”. And I thought “yeah, great”. It was pretty loud still, even for a smaller court. “I tried to work on my fitness during the off-season; that needed improvements after last season”.

Stan Wawrinka won his 400th tour-level match with a 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Lukas Rosol in the third round at the Australian Open.

It will represent a significant step up on Saturday but the bottom half of the draw is opening up for the Briton who, having usurped Williams, is now enjoying the ninth seed’s path.

Before then, however, the world number 47 will team up with compatriot Heather Watson in the second round of the doubles on Friday, when they take on Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith in an all-British clash. In 2008, he played Marcos Baghdatis in a third-round match that started before midnight and finished at 4:34 a.m. There was still a big crowd in Rod Laver Arena when he won it.