ANDY Murray is wary of the new, more mature Jurgen Melzer as he plots a route past the Austrian and into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

While Melzer remains one of the most attacking players on tour, he has added an element of consistency to ensure his game is not now all or nothing.

And, following his ludicrously straightforward defeat of Guillermo Garcia- Lopez on Saturday, Murray realises Melzer represents his first proper challenge in Melbourne.

Murray said: ‘‘It will be a tough match. He’s very unpredictable on the court but had his best year on the tour last year.

‘‘He takes a lot of chances on the court and can also make some mistakes too. He plays high-risk tennis.

‘‘But he has definitely improved.

The older he has got, the better he has started to play. He has started to understand his game better.’’ A clash with Melzer, who reached the French Open semi-finals in 2010 and improved his year-end ranking to a career-best 11, will undoubtedly be more difficult for Murray than his meeting with Garcia-Lopez.

The Spaniard talked up his chances beforehand but then spectacularly failed to deliver with an awful performance which resulted in the Scot barely breaking sweat on his way to a 6-1 6-1 6-2 victory in just an hour and 22 minutes.

The standard of opposition should not detract from Murray’s performance, though.

He was efficient, clinical on break points – claiming eight of 11 – and kept his concentration, despite the match resembling little more than a training exercise.

Melzer reached the last 16 by beating Marcos Baghdatis, who retired with a finger injury with Melzer leading 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 6-1 4-3. The 11th seed is confident he can spring a surprise against Murray, even though he has a 0-4 record against the fifth seed.