Murray keeps cool as Del Potro clash looms

ANDY Murray will today face a familiar foe when he walks on to court for the quarter-finals of the US Open, following yesterday's impressive straight sets win over Stanislas Wawrinka.

The Scot has now reached the last eight of the grand slam event for the first time, and will move up to world No5 when the rankings are next published. Tonight he will go head-to-head with Juan Martin Del Potro, the gangling world No17 from Argentina who made an insulting remark about Murray's mother the last time they were drawn together in May.

Del Potro's comment about Judy Murray during the match so incensed the Scot that the umpire had to tell both men to calm down. Del Potro had started the fight by drilling a ball straight at Murray's head and refusing to apologise. But when he picked on Judy, Murray had had enough. The Scot won when Del Potro pulled out with a back injury but the two men have not spoken since.

"Whether there is unfinished business there or not, for me it's another tennis match," Murray said yesterday. "Whether I like Del Potro or not really doesn't make any difference. When you get on the tennis court it's another match, and you've got to win. I've known him since we were really young. It doesn't really bother me. I wasn't great friends with him before. I don't need to be friends with him now."

Del Potro stands six feet and six inches tall and has made massive strides up the rankings this summer. He won four titles on his way to New York and today will be his first taste of a grand slam quarter-final. He is big and strong but Murray is not unduly concerned. "When you watch him, I don't think that you see anything that's unbelievably special," Murray said. "He doesn't miss a whole lot. He moves pretty well for a big guy. He does everything well. He's got a good crosscourt backhand and he just hits the ball hard and solid and doesn't make a whole a lot of mistakes."

The fact that Murray is in his second consecutive grand slam quarter-final does not seem to faze him, and he has his sights on bigger prizes. In the Wimbledon quarter-final he was blown away by Rafael Nadal but this time, against Del Potro, he feels ready for the challenge.

"I don't think there's a huge difference between playing a fourth round match in a slam and a quarter-final," Murray said. "I think once you start to get to the final, that's when it changes a little bit. You've got potential to make history and go down as a great tennis player. The last slam quarter I played, I got killed and Nadal played way too good for me, but I feel like I'm playing better now. I'm definitely going to be more rested this time and hopefully play a better match."

If he does, Nadal could be waiting for him again, only this time in the semi-finals. That would be at the sharp end of the second week and that is what Murray came here to be a part of.

As most champions are fond of pointing out, grand slam titles can be lost in the first week of the tournament but they cannot be won. It is the second week that matters and that is when a completely different contest begins.

So when Murray strode into the Arthur Ashe stadium on Monday night, he was starting again. The trials and tribulations of the past few rounds at the US Open were forgotten and Murray was a new man. And he was on top form as he brushed aside Wawrinka 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.

The result moved him up one notch in the world rankings to No5 and, depending on other results this week, he may end the Open as the world No4. Judging by his performance on Monday, that is where he belongs.

Murray had watched many a match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium but he had never experienced the very special atmosphere that a night match there can create. Given his opportunity to show off his talents in front of the rowdy New Yorkers, he grabbed it with both hands and even took a sneaky peek at the replays of his best shots flashed up on the giant screens at either end of the court during end changes.

"They normally only show good points, so that's why you watch it," he said with a grin. "It's the first match I've played on that court and I've been looking forward to it for a long, long time. To play like that made it pretty special."

There were plenty of highlights for Murray to admire. He applied the thumb-screws to Wawrinka from the off and never gave the Swiss a chance. Everything in the Scot's game was working to perfection – save for a couple of dodgy drop-shots – as he served well, returned better and rifled his backhand into the corners. His forehand was venomous when it needed to be but he could also vary the pace and the spin to leave Wawrinka guessing and scraping the ball off the court surface.

"I've beaten better players than Stan," he said, "but that level of performance throughout the whole match was probably my best one of all the slams I played. In those types of situation, on courts as big as that, the start of the match is so important, and I knew that. I warmed up really well beforehand and wanted to try to get ahead early on and set the tone for the match."

Meanwhile, Jamie Murray and Liezel Huber reached the US Open mixed doubles semi-finals when they edged past second seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic.

Murray and American Huber needed a match tie-break to win their closely-fought quarter-final on court 13 at the Billie Jean National Tennis Centre.

Unseeded Murray and Huber beat Slovenia's Srebotnik and Serbia's Zimonjic 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (9-11), 11-9 and will now face wild cards Jill Craybas and Eric Butorac – Murray's former men's doubles partner – in the last four.

It is the second year in a row Murray and Huber have reached the semi-finals at the US Open.