Australian Open 2014: With temperatures in Melbourne heating up a mid-afternoon 'siesta' could be the answer

Players away from the show courts are especially vulnerable, as there is no cover from the scorching weather – so why not have a break in the heat of the day?

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Australian Open 2014: 'I'm just glad to win and get off humid court', says Andy Murray

Andy Murray says that he is glad to reach the third round of the Australian Open and get off the humid court as the heatwave continues in Melbourne 7:51PM GMT 16 Jan 2014

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Australian Open 2014: Andy Murray strolls into fourth round

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Andy Murray continued his domination of left-handers by swatting aside Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Australian Open fourth round.

Murray's win over the big-serving Spaniard was his 14th in succession against southpaws and set-up a last 16 showdown with 'lucky loser' and Frenchman Stephane Robert.

The 33-year-old Robert is ranked 119th in the world and made the main draw only after German Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out at the start of the tournament.

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Australian Open 2014: 'Dom the bom' Inglot still furious a decade after failing to beat Andy Murray

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Ask a casual tennis fan to identify the five Britons who entered the men’s doubles here, and the one most likely to draw blank looks would be Dominic “Dom The Bomb” Inglot.

Jamie Murray is a member of tennis’s first family, Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins have been Davis Cup regulars, and Jonny Marray won Wimbledon in 2012. Whereas Inglot’s biggest claim to fame used to be that he acted as Paul Bettany’s body double in a Hollywood film, also called Wimbledon.

But all that will change, in time, if Inglot – a 6ft 4in behemoth with a 140mph serve – continues to be the last man standing in these events. It is now a year since any of the other British men outperformed him at a grand slam.

Having come into the Australian Open as British No 1 in doubles – a title he claimed for the first time just over a week ago — Inglot and Filipino partner Treat Huey scored a fine win on Sunday over seventh seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. They will play in the quarter-finals tonight.

Asked yesterday whether the No 1 ranking was important to him, the ever-chatty Inglot replied: “Absolutely. I’m going to be using that when I go back to the bars and try to find girls.” Will that work? “I hope so! I’ve never had the opportunity before unless I lied, and some girls are good at reading a lie.”

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“I’m really pumped about it,” he said, with a straighter face. “It’s definitely one of the things you want growing up, you want to win slams, represent your country in Davis Cup, win Olympics and be your country’s No 1 player.”

Inglot could be an outside shot for Davis Cup selection when the team to face the USA is announced on Tuesday, though he admits that Fleming is likely to be ahead of him in the queue. “It’s not just about playing well, but playing well together,” he said. “Andy

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Australian Open 2014: Roger Federer to face Andy Murray in quarter final after defeating Jo-Wilfred Tsonga

Class act: former world number one Roger Federer looked very good against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, and managed to keep the Frenchman's power at bay Photo: AP

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Australian Open 2014: 'Jo Wilfried-Tsonga was a big test for me' says Roger Federer

Roger Federer says he is "surprised how things worked out for me" following his trouncing Jo Wilfried-Tsonga 6-3 7-5 6-4 at the Australian Open, a victory which sets up a quarter final with Andy Murray 3:44PM GMT 20 Jan 2014

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Australian Open 2014: Andy Murray v Roger Federer, first of the year's 'superclashes'

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What did Stefan Edberg say to Roger Federer before he took the court on Monday?

Something to the effect of “Courage, mon brave,” judging by the way Federer kept rushing the net like a dervish.

The question is whether he will be as bold – or as clinical – against Andy Murray on Wednesday.

There is no such thing as a dull meeting between Federer and Murray, but this one promises to be especially fascinating.

If the 2014 Australian Open has been the tournament of the supercoaches, this will be its first superclash.

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This quarter-final might almost sound like a reconstruction staged by a historical society, given that Edberg and Ivan Lendl faced off no fewer than four times in Melbourne, withhonours shared at two wins apiece.

In broad terms, their modern charges look to follow the same patterns: Federer coming forward to volley like a more debonair Edberg, Murray pursuing the “power baseline” game that Lendl all but invented.

But if the outline might be familiar, the staging will be completely different. You might as well compare West Side Story to Romeo and Juliet.

Tennis culture evolves, and the best players evolve faster than the rest.

Indeed both Federer and Murray have moved on significantly since they last faced each other, in the semi-final of this event a year ago.

Federer has not just hired Edberg, but fixed his back trouble and switched to a larger, 98-inch racket, which has been working supremely well for him over the past week.

Lendl and company might not want to study Monday’s 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga too closely, for fear of becoming demoralised.

It felt like a flashback to Federer’s salad days.

As for Murray, he has not just won Wimbledon but addressed a chronic injury of his own by having an irregular piece of bone shaved off one of his vertebrae.

He has returned to the tour with more mobility than we have seen from him in at least 18 months, particularly on his double-fisted backhand, which is now smoother and more adaptable. The downside is a lack of matches.

We saw a hint of this on Monday when Murray faced Stéphane Robert, the first lucky loser to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open, and a man who belongs on a different plane of the sport.

As Murray said: “I dominated 95 per cent of the match.” But the other five per cent arrived at an inconvenient moment.

At the end of the third set, Murray had two match points on his own serve at 5-4, and then two more in the tie-break, but allowed them all to slip away – an aberration that cost him an extra half-hour on court.

It was a good thing that in the fourth set his superior conditioning kicked in, as Robert started cramping and Murray – who had comprehensively destroyed one of his rackets just before it started – eased to a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 victory.

He still spent only 2hr 42min on Hisense Arena (half an hour less than Rafael Nadal needed to subdue Kei Nishikori in three sets on Monday), so that outbreak of ‘Fergie time’ was hardly a disaster.

But it was hard to imagine a fully match-tight Murray wasting so many opportunities.

Unless, of course, he happened to be playing Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon final.

“I can’t honestly say my expectations are as high as if I’d been playing for the last four months,” Murray admitted.

“It’s been a good effort to get to the quarter-finals of a slam this soon after back surgery.

But now I’m not far away from winning the event. Anyone that’s in the quarters is close.”

Murray is covering all eventualities there.

But then, it has been hard to gauge the level of his tennis – probably even for Murray himself – because of the eccentric cast list thrown up by the draw.

Uniquely, in his history of 32 grand slams, he has faced three opponents outside the top 100.

While Murray was happy to ease his way into the tournament, this was not perhaps the ideal preparation for facing Federer – a shot-making genius whose new racket appears to have shaved at least a couple of years off his age.

“Roger took the ball very early today, and he was always taking my time away,” a chastened Tsonga said. “Everything was going quick. He was playing unbelievable.”

The odds must incline towards Federer, which is not something you would have anticipated when he blew up so horrendously against Tommy Robredo at the US Open.

That was only four months ago, and yet this great magician has shown an ability to regenerate that would impress Doctor Who.

Expect him to step into the court against Murray’s second serve – a long-time weakness that had improved significantly under Lendl’s guidance, but appears to have regressed again during Murray’s time off.

Against Robert, Murray averaged 82mph on the second serve, and won 52 per cent of the points.

Federer’s equivalent figures were 94mph and 69 per cent, even though he was facing a much stronger opponent.

“I like playing the best,” Federer said, sounding more bullish than he has for a while.

“And you need to take it to them. You need to play aggressive against the top guys, me included.

"You don’t want to wait for stuff to happen. I think that usually is good for success.”

Murray’s record against Federer is a mixed one: 11 wins from 20 meetings, but only one win from four meetings in the grand slams.

That came here, in last year’s semi-final, when Federer became so frustrated that he blurted an unprintable epithet in Murray’s direction.

Since then, the great man has been short of form and certainty.

But whoever wins, the conclusion will be the same. “He’s back.”

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Australian Open 2014: Andy Murray 'tried to fight against Federer'

Andy Murray expresses his disappointment after Roger Federer beat him 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3 to set-up an Australian Open semi-final showdown with Rafael Nadal 2:31PM GMT 22 Jan 2014

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World Cup 2014: England's Opponents Revealed

Roy Hodgson and his England side face a difficult task in the group stage of next year's competition in Brazil. 7:25am UK, Saturday 07 December 2013

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