Australian Open
- Venue: Melbourne Park
- Date: 16-29 January
- Coverage: Watch live on Eurosport; singles finals and one men's semi-final on BBC Two/Red Button/HD channel/website; listen on BBC Radio 5 live; text commentaries and reports on the BBC Sport website
Murray has been beaten in each of the past two Australian Open finals
Andy Murray is wary of Kei Nishikori's "deceptive" power ahead of their Australian Open quarter-final.
Nishikori upset Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to become only the second Japanese player to make the last eight of an Open-era Grand Slam.
"Kei is playing really, really well. He's very good, very deceptive. For somebody who is not the tallest, he creates a lot of power," Murray said.
"He was dictating all the points from the back of the court against Tsonga."
HEAD TO HEAD
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British number one Murray beat 22-year-old Nishikori 6-0 6-3 in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters in 2011 in the pair's only previous match.
But Murray is expecting a tougher contest when the pair meet in the early hours of Wednesday morning at about 0330 GMT.
Before Nishikori, Shuzo Matsuoka was the only Japanese player to reach the latter stages of a Grand Slam event, when he made the 1995 Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Nishikori was coached by Brad Gilbert for some of last season and Murray, who was under Gilbert's tutelage between July 2006 and November 2007, believes his opponent's hard work off the court is paying dividends.
Murray said: "When I worked with Brad and spoke to him about Kei a little bit, he was saying he needs to learn to love the gym.
"I've seen him in there a lot doing good work. He is in better shape.
"I think that can then help with your mentality on the court. He isn't as tall as some of the guys, so getting stronger will have helped his game."
Murray is now coached by eight-time Grand Slam champion Ivan Lendl and he has been working on taking up a more aggressive position on the baseline.
"I think the thing that has changed has been my court positioning," Murray told Eurosport.
MURRAY'S ROUTE TO THE LAST EIGHT
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Round 1: bt R. Harrison (US) 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-2
Round 2: bt Eduoard Roger Vasselin (Fra) 6-1 6-4 6-4
Round 3: bt Michael Llodra (Fra) 6-4 6-2 6-0
Round 4: bt Mikhail Kukushkin (Kaz) 6-1 6-1 1-0 ret
"I haven't really changed the way I'm hitting the ball, I'm not hitting it much harder or serving much bigger.
"I'm just playing closer to the baseline, which means I can dictate more points and take time away from my opponent.
"By playing a metre closer to the baseline, your ball does a lot more damage down the other end."
At 26th in the world Nishikori is the highest-ranked opponent Murray has faced so far in a tournament in which he has dropped only one set.
He spent just 49 minutes on the Rod Laver Arena in the fourth round as opponent Mikhail Kukushkin retired injured when trailing 6-1 6-1 1-0.
But the Scot insists he is happy to have had a relatively easy ride into the last eight.
He added: "I thought I played a little bit better each round. I didn't feel good at all in my first match [against Ryan Harrison] but I managed to get through. Then I started serving better and moving better.
"I will definitely be fresh for the next few rounds, hopefully."
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