Andy Murray is showing the form to capitalise on the shock elimination of second seed Roger Federer with the Brit cruising into the Australian Open fourth round.
Three-time runner-up Murray continued his dominant start at Melbourne Park with another straight-sets victory on Friday.
Since 2009, Murray has lost just one set in his first three rounds of the Open and that ominous form continued at the expense of Portugal's Joao Sousa with a 6-1 6-1 7-5 victory.
Sousa, who needed medical treatment in the second set, was simply outclassed by the sixth seed, who hit 39 wins and won 83 per cent of his first serves.
Murray and Federer were on track for a quarter-final showdown until the Swiss maestro's surprise 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) loss to Italian veteran Andreas Seppi.
Murray will next face Bulgarian 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the round of 16.
He has now reached the fourth round for the seventh consecutive year as he bids secure an elusive Australian title following losses in the final to Federer (2010) and Novak Djokovic (2011, 2013).
Murray was satisfied with his tournament start this year.
"I thought I played well and I managed to dictate a lot of the points," the world No.6 said.
"I controlled the baseline very well. I hit the ball cleanly - it was a good performance."
Dimitrov was down two sets to one on Friday, but battled back to defeat 2006 finalist and crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis 4-6 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3.
The match lasted almost three-and-a-half hours.
The 23-year-old said he didn't feel comfortable on the court but was happy with how he fought to stay in the match.
"I found a way to fight through it two sets to one down," Dimitrov said.
"To me that says a lot and at the same time, gives me a lot of confidence."
Murray lost to Dimitrov in the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year and the two-time grand slam winner said he knew it would be a step up.
"It will be a tough match obviously," Murray said.
"He's played well in the slams the last year or so."
Czech Tomas Berdych also sailed into the fourth round, needing one hour and 51 minutes to defeat Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-4 6-3 6-4.
Berdych will take on Bernard Tomic, who downed Sam Groth 6-4 7-6 (10-8) 6-3 in the all-Australian fourth-round showdown.
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