MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) With no other British male ranked in the top 100, Andy Murray knows that one of the longest-standing droughts in Grand Slam tennis will probably end only when he wins a singles title.
It doesn't mean he can't state the obvious.
I don't want to get carried away,'' Murray said Monday after advancing to the Australian Open quarterfinals.I've never won one of these things before.''
His 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 win over Jurgen Melzer of Austria puts him closer to a second straight appearance in the final at Melbourne Park, where he lost to Roger Federer last year.
He also came close to ending the British streak - no male winner of a Grand Slam since Fred Perry in 1936 - at the 2008 U.S. Open, where he lost final to Federer.
To get to Sunday night's final, he could have to beat Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. He's done that a major before, beating Nadal at the 2008 U.S. Open and handing the Spanish left-hander his first loss while ranked No. 1.
Murray will find out later Monday if he needs to worry about the Nadal semi - Marin Cilic will take on Nadal in a fourth-round match, followed by U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters' match against Ekaterina Makarova.
Nadal is trying to win his fourth consecutive Grand Slam event, the first man to hold all four major trophies since Rod Laver in 1969.
Before Murray gets a potential crack at Nadal, he'll face an unexpected quarterfinal rival after 22-year-old Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov had an upset 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win over fourth-seeded Robin Soderling, ending the French Open finalist's eight-match winning streak.
He's got a very unorthodox game, very different to most of the guys on the tour,'' Murray said of Dolgopolov.He has a game that can make you play strange shots or not play that well.''
Dolgopolov said his father, Oleksandar, worked as a coach for the likes of Andrei Medvedev, so he sometimes hit with the players when they were practicing and the family was on tour.
For sure I had some good times. I was a bit maybe annoying for some players to play with me,'' he said.It was nice to start a tennis career like that.''
No. 7 David Ferrer advanced to a potential quarterfinal match against Nadal with his 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over 20-year-old Canadian qualifier Milos Raonic, who'd upset No. 10 Mikhail Youzhny in the third round.
Soderling hadn't dropped a set during his surge that started with his run to the title at the Brisbane tuneup event. He dominated the opening set but couldn't keep it up against Dolgopolov, who is making his fourth appearance in a major and was coming off a five-set win over former Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Dolgopolov's cross-court backhand to bring up his first match point was typical of the 50 winners he hit against a stunned Soderling, the highest of the seeded players knocked out of the men's draw.
Soderling saved three match points, but his run came to an end with another unforced error, his 51st.
No. 2-ranked Vera Zvonareva continued her roll toward a third consecutive Grand Slam final with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Iveta Benesova.
Zvonareva, who lost the Wimbledon final to Serena Williams and the U.S. Open final to Clijsters last year, moved into a quarterfinal match against No. 25 Petra Kvitova, who rallied to beat No. 22 Flavia Pennetta 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska beat China's Peng Shuai 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 and will meet the winner of the Clijsters-Makarova match.
Zvonareva said she ignores the doubters who say she doesn't deserve her ranking because she hasn't won a major.
There are a lot of people that always underestimated me and ... and there are a lot of people that thought I never will make it to even like Grand Slam semifinals or something,'' she said.But it doesn't really matter to me ... the most important thing is that I believe in myself.''
Murray, who knows that feeling about not having won a Grand Slam, has lost just 22 games in four matches.
I'm not expecting to go through the tournament winning matches like that, with that scoreline,'' Murray said.I'm ready for that mentally when it does get tough.''