Andy Murray Will Reach The Australian Open Final- Barry Cowan

Sky Sports tennis expert Barry Cowan believes that Andy Murray has put himself in a great position to make the Australian Open final again despite being pushed by Joao Sousa.

Murray was forced to dig deep to reach his 20th consecutive Grand Slam fourth round at the Australian Open as he sealed a 6-2 3-6 6-2 6-2 victory. The British No 1 was far from his fluent best on the Margaret Court Arena but was clinical in the crucial moments and Cowan felt he did enough.

Cowan had this to say “He certainly needed to dig deep but Sousa has that you know what you're going to get. He's a very good player but you just feel that he was always playing at his very best. What Andy makes you do - especially in the best of five sets, along with the other really top guys - is that you can't really do it for just one set, you have to do it for three. As soon as Sousa's level dropped, Andy pounced on him. But I think given the fact that he was very comfortable the first couple of matches, it was probably a good test to have. You shouldn't forget that Andy only played at the Hopman Cup [before the Australian Open] so, in effect, this is the first proper test he's had since the Davis Cup final. I think it will certainly benefit him. Sousa is a very good player and is one of those players that gets the very best out of his talents. But even when it was one set-all, physically and mentally he had to do it for another two sets and that's where Andy is so strong. It was important that he didn't panic. Was he at his very best? No. Was [Novak] Djokovic at his very best? No. You don't want to be at your very best now but I think all-in-all he will benefit from being pushed a little bit. He had to dig deep and play his best tennis when he really needed to. Onwards and upwards”

With Murray projected to face David Ferrer in the quarter-finals and then Stan Wawrinka in the final four, Cowan expects Murray to reach the final once again. “I think yes, on form," he said. I think that he's in a great position to make the final again but there's a lot of quality players that could potentially beat him. We know about Wawrinka and he does cause [Murray] problems. Milos Raonic has been playing well since the start of the year. I'm looking forward to the Raonic-Wawrinka match - I think we'll learn a lot about where Raonic is at. Then again, you can't discount Ferrer and John Isner, but Andy is the best player in that bottom half. The rankings don't lie. That's the beauty about the sport and Andy will look forward to having a great second week” he said.