Sunday 22 January 2017 07:54, UK
All eyes will be on Andy Murray as Britain's world No 1 hopes to clear the final hurdle at last in his 12th Australian Open.
The 29-year-old heads to Melbourne as the best in the world and top seed for the first time after overtaking Novak Djokovic at the end of last season.
Murray, coming off a magnificent 2016 with a second Wimbledon crown, a successful Olympic title defence and the year-end top ranking, has lost five Melbourne finals, four of those to defending champion Djokovic.
But he will be hoping to celebrate his debut Grand Slam as top seed by winning his first Australian Open title. We plot his route to glory...
Andy Murray ground out a hard-earned straight sets win over the plucky Ukrainian to open his campaign.
The top seed carved out the victory in two hours and 47 minutes on Rod Laver Arena after eventually wearing down his 93rd-ranked opponent in draining heat.
Andy Murray looked every bit the world No 1 as he gave Russian teenager Rublev a lesson in Grand Slam tennis to reach the third round with a comfortable win.
The 19-year-old world No 152 is the son of a professional boxer and likes to keep in shape by sparring in the boxing ring and listening to the music of Mettalica.
But the former junior world No 1 was unable to get a single break point on his serve with the Wimbledon and Olympic champion in clinical form, smashing 29 winners.
The American blew away Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon last summer but could not repeat the feat against Murray.
Murray showed no signs of discomfort after rolling his right ankle in his previous match and won some wonderful points chasing down seemingly lost causes as he provided a masterclass in counter-punch tennis.
The big-hitting Querrey was taken apart in one minute shy of two hours.
Germany's Zverev, beat the highest-seeded American in the men's draw John Isner 6-7 (4-7) 6-7 (4/7) 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 9-7 after four hours and 10 minutes to reach the third round where defeated Malek Jaziri from Tunisia in four sets.
The older brother of Alexander is a man in form having reached the quarter-finals in Shenzhen, Shanghai Masters and the semi-finals in Basel towards the back-end of last year.
Federer has beaten Murray in all of their last five meetings but while another clash here is a mouth-watering prospect, Murray would be favourite this time around.
Four-time champion Federer, 35, is seeded 17th after missing the entire second half of last season through injury, but is unlikely to hit top form on the back of four matches.
Nishikori is also seeded to meet him for a place in the last four with the Japanese trailblazer having vanquished the Scot in five sets at the US Open before Murray got his revenge at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in a match lasting three hours and 20 minutes.
History suggests Wawrinka is often fragile in the early rounds of majors but once he reaches the latter stages he becomes a fearsome opponent to stop.
A player who rises to the big occasion, Wawrinka arrives after gunning down Novak Djokovic to win the US Open and certainly has the power on both flanks to bring down Murray on the Melbourne hard courts.
The question is does the Swiss have the stamina and consistency to beat Murray, who won both of their meetings last year? Murray would carry a 10-7 record into that match against the gifted fourth seed.
After old foe Novak Djokovic, a six-time Australian Open champion, suffered a surprise upset to 117th-ranked Denis Istomin in the second round, it blown the bottom half of the draw wide open.
Four of Murray's five final defeats have come against the Serbian, including in three of the last four years, while he also lost a titanic semi-final in 2012, so he'll be somewhat thankful not to meet him at the end of the second week once more.
The dynamic has shifted in Murray's favour though this year after he snatched the world No 1 spot off Djokovic in November and is now primed to pounce and finally claim his first Australian Open crown.
Two of the men tipped to reach Sunday's final is third-seeded Canadian Raonic, who has previous with Murray, or 14-time Grand Slam champion Nadal.
Check our game-by-game updates from Andy Murray's matches at the 2017 Australian Open by following our blog on skysports.com/tennis, our app for mobile devices and iPad or our Twitter account @skysportstennis.
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