Up until now, Murray hadn’t faced a really tough opponent.  He played 32nd seed, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and pummeled him.  Garcia-Lopez seemed confused and unable to pressure Murray.  However, Melzer was seen as a crafty lefty with more power than Garcia-Lopez.  Melzer had had an indifferent career for nearly a decade, his rankings mired in the 40s, his Slam record a history of mediocrity.  Then, Melzer had his one big breakthrough, a semifinal at the French, and it seemed to change his life.  At age 29, his recent wins at the Aussie Open will push him into the top ten for the first time ever.

Murray had expected a tough battle.  Sure, he had never lost to Melzer in four previous meetings, but that was a different Melzer.  That was Melzer from before last year.  And yet, Murray plowed through Melzer like he wasn’t in the top 10.  Murray’s defense pushed Melzer into errors and those errors lead to breaks and those breaks lead to a 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.

Meanwhile, Robin Soderling came into the Aussie Open looking to right a wrong.  The Australian Open, for some reason, had been his worst Slam.  Last year, he lost in the first round.  This time, he won Brisbane and this time he reached the fourth round without dropping a set.

Dolgopolov was almost ushered out of the Open, but was saved when Tsonga’s fitness gave out, the byproduct of injury leading to incomplete training.  No one expected Dolgopolov to beat Soderling.

Soderling started off the match the way he had before.  He bullied his way to the first set.  However, Dolgopolov started to use his speed, and his ability to put balls where Soderling wasn’t, to great effect.  Dolgopolov took the second set, then the third set even more easily.  Soderling managed to win the fourth set by holding onto  a break, but Dolgopolov showed an ability to retrieve ball after ball before taking advantage and hitting a tough shot of his own.

Dolgopolov ran away with the fifth set with a double-break, essentially taking advantage of Soderling’s one weakness: his foot speed.

Up next for the long-haired Ukrainian.  Andy Murray.  And we’ll see if the young player has something that will bother the Scot seeking his first Slam win.

Milos Raonic took the first set against Ferrer behind booming serves and approaches up the middle.  However, Ferrer does well on returns of serve, and errors began to creep up on Raonic and Ferrer took the second set, 6-2.  They are early in the third set.

Later on, Rafael Nadal takes on Marin Cilic in his first interesting test.  Is Cilic ready to beat Nadal a second time?  Or will he be able to push him?  Probably not, but Cilic was once top ten, and maybe he’s ready to show that he can play big-time tennis again.

Federer is scheduled to play the early afternoon match tomorrow against Wawrinka while Djokovic will face Berdych in an early evening match.