Andy Murray dropped his first set of this year's Australian Open, but came through, in the end pretty comfortably, against Portugal's Joao Sousa. The two met at the same stage a year ago, and despite Sousa just taking his second set in seven meetings against the Scot, the world no.2 proved far too strong. The crowd will be with Murray's opponent in Round 4, who will be 16th seed and home favourite Bernard Tomic, after he came past fellow Aussie, John Millman.
Stan Wawrinka remains on course to meet Murray in the last-four after the champion of two years ago came past a Czech for the second consecutive match, defeating Lukas Rosol in straight sets. The French Open champion will play Milos Raonic, who recently defeated the world no.4 at the Abu Dhabi exhibition event, for a place in the quarter-finals, after the Canadian won the battle of the Brisbane & Sydney champs, overcoming Viktor Troicki.
After his victory over Lleyton Hewitt, which ended the Aussie's singles career, David Ferrer won again as the eighth seed comfortably dispatched America's Steve Johnson to set-up a fourth round meeting with the big-serving John Isner, who has reached back-to-back second weeks in Slams for the first time in six years. Isner, three places behind Ferrer in the world rankings, came from a set down to beat Feliciano Lopez in four.
The entertaining Gael Monfils has matched his best Australian Open result in reaching the last-16 (also reached Round 4 in 2009) after defeating fellow Frenchman Stephane Robert. Surprising perhaps that he hasn't dropped a set so far either, considering the thrills and spills his matches usually contain. Conserving that energy could be handy should he set-up a last-eight meeting with Raonic or Wawrinka, but first he must overcome Andrey Kuznetsov; the Russian reaching the fourth round of a Slam for the first time after a four-set success over Dudi Sela.
Results:
Andy Murray (2) bt Joao Sousa (32) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Stan Wawrinka (4) bt Lukas Rosol 6-2, 6-3, 7-6
David Ferrer (8) bt Steve Johnson 6-1, 6-4, 6-4
John Isner (10) bt Feliciano Lopez (18) 6-7, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4
Milos Raonic (13) bt Viktor Troicki (21) 6-2, 6-3, 6-4
Bernard Tomic (16) bt John Millman 6-4, 7-6, 6-2
Gael Monfils (23) bt Stephane Robert 7-5, 6-3, 6-2
Andrey Kuznetsov bt Dudi Sela 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6
Last-16 Matches:
Novak Djokovic (1) - Gilles Simon (14)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (9) - Kei Nishikori (7)
Roger Federer (3) - David Goffin (15)
Roberto Baustista Agut (24) - Tomas Berdych (6)
Andrey Kuznetsov - Gael Monfils (23)
Milos Raonic (13) - Stan Wawrinka (4)
David Ferrer (8) - John Isner (10)
Bernard Tomic (16) - Andy Murray (2)