ANDY Murray believes he has had enough success in the past few months to warrant being mentioned in the same breath as Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic when it comes to contenders for the Australian Open title.

Djokovic, the defending champion and world number three, has been particularly prickly about the subject of the Scot’s rising profile.

When asked what he thought about the world number four being ranked ahead of him in the favourites stakes for this year’s crown, the Serb was quick to point out, who was higher in the pecking order in the rankings.

Djokovic is not alone. Lleyton Hewitt has suggested you would be mad to put your money on anyone other than the world’s top two, while Federer has also expressed some surprise at the amount of talk Murray is generating.

Murray, who eased into round three with a 6-4 6-2 6-2 win against Marcel Granollers, has looked on with some bemusement at it all.

‘‘They say there’s a lot of pressure on them, but then people aren’t saying they’re the favourites . . . yet they want to be the favourites.

Therefore, by saying they’re the favourites, they’re putting more pressure back on themselves,’’ Murray reasoned.

‘‘I don’t really understand the whole thing. I mean, I think I’ve played well enough in the last six or seven months to be in that sort of group.

Whether I’m the favourite or not – I don’t know.

‘‘Like I said at the start of the tournament, Federer and Nadal have got the most experience and probably merit being favourites.

‘‘But there’s a reason why people think I have a chance to win here, because I played very well the last few months and won against them.’’ After bowing out to Federer in the US Open final last year, Murray won ATP titles in St Petersburg and Madrid and qualified for the Tennis Masters Cup in China where he reached the semi-finals.

He is unbeaten so far this season. He won an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi, where he beat Federer and Nadal, and followed that up by retaining his Doha crown with victories against Federer (semi-finals) and Andy Roddick.

He has now progressed to the third round of the Australian Open winning with ease yesterday after a brief 45- minute work out in the first round when Andrei Pavel retired with a back problem.

Murray never looked in trouble against the 22-year-old Spaniard on Rod Laver Arena, although there were lapses in concentration that will need to be avoided against more talented opponents.

He closed out his match in an hour and 50 minutes, breaking Granollers twice in each set, though the world number 51 did return the favour once in the first set.

There was some good tennis along the way too as both players were willing to take their chances at the net as well as slug it out from the baseline.

In the fifth game of the third set Murray hit a forehand winner but only after the players had tried to out-do each other with drop shots and lobs that prompted plenty of cheering from the crowd.

Murray admitted his concentration had wavered.

‘‘I wasn’t concentrating on every point. It was tough. His sort of body language, the way he walks around the court, looks likes he’s not that interested. He’s been like that since we were young so it’s tough to sort of stay with the match all the time.

‘‘But each time I got behind in a game on my serve, I slowed myself down and focused.

‘‘I felt like I hit the ball much better today. I thought when I got my feet moving, had my mind on the point, I thought I hit the ball well. It got better as the match went on.

‘‘Apart from the game where I got broken from 40- love up, I didn’t give him too many chances on my serve and I’m happy I won in three sets.’’ Murray’s opponent in the third round is Austrian Jurgen Melzer, who beat Andreas Beck 5-7 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 6-3.

Rafael Nadal beat Roko Karanusic 6-2 6-3 6-2 in the second round and said: “I am always trying to improve on this surface and hopefully this year I will have a chance to win here or at the US Open.’’ Standing in his way in the third round is Germany’s Tommy Haas, who looked impressive on his way to a 6-1 6- 2 6-1 victory against Italy’s Favio Cipolla.

Ninth seed James Blake also had a straight-sets win, defeating qualifier Sebastian de Chaunac 6-3 6-2 6-3.