The 2010 Australian Open final between 15 time grand slam winner Roger Federer and Andy Murray will take place on the Rod Laver Arena tomorrow at 19:30 local time (8.30am UK time).

Andy Murray will be attempting to end the 74 year old wait for a British grand slam winner, whilst Roger Federer will be trying for his 4th title in Melbourne and extending his record number of slams to his name.

One stat that surely stands out more than any other is that when Roger Federer one his first grand slam he was aged 22 and competing in his 17th grand slam. Andy Murray is currently 22 and the Australian Open is the Scot’s 17th grand slam. The question is can Andy Murray emulate Federer?

The bookmakers see it has more likely that Murray will have to wait a little longer to claim that elusive first grand slam, with tradional bookies seeing Roger Federer favorite at 4/7 and Murray’s chances ranging from 6/5 to 3/2, though Betfair is offering even better odds than that.

Over the last 5 years the only thing that has changed about British players success in grand slams is the increase in the number of years since a British player lifted a grand slam trophy.

When Andy Murray burst onto the tennis scene in the summer of 2005, the question being asked then was – Can Andy Murray end Britain’s 69 year wait for a grand slam winner? It’s now 74 years since Fred Perry lifted his grand slam title and the debate over Andy Murray’s grand slam chances has never stopped.

Murray has ended one 72 year old record this week, not since Henry ‘Bunny’ Austin had a British player reached two grand slam finals – Murray reached his first slam final 17 months ago at the US Open, that day he fell short against the then 12 time grand slam champion Roger Federer.

Since that final Federer has reached every grand slam final and is now a 15 time grand slam champion, whilst Murray has failed to reach the grand slam heights that many predicted losing in the last 4 slams to players he regularly beats and ranked lower than the Scot.

Murray’s 2009 was his most successful year to date, with 6 titles and a brief spell as the world number 2, but despite those accomplishments 2009 will remain as the year that Murray did not win a grand slam. Many great things were predicted for Murray in 2009 including winning the Australian Open, he was favorite in many peoples eyes going into the event, but Murray lost in the 4th round to Fernando Verdasco a player he had beaten 6 times in a row.

2010 is starting how many people expected 2009 to start – Will 2009 be the last year that Murray did not win a grand slam?

Andy Murray produced a vintage 2 set performance before defending Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal was forced to retire hurt with a right-knee injury in the third set of their quarter final match.

Murray led 6-3 7-6(7-2) 3-0 when Nadal called time on the match – The Spaniard had not shown any sign of injury during the first two sets as he and Murray produced two of the best sets of tennis of the 2010 Australian Open.

In each of the completed sets Murray was forced to break back after the Spaniard took early command in each set. In the first set Nadal broke to lead to 2-1 before Murray broke back with unbelievable lob and then powered on to break again and lead 5-2. Murray held serve to win it 6-3 on his third set point.

The second set was a disjointed affair with score on serve with Nadal leading 3-2, a scheduled Australia day fireworks display caused a 10-minute halt to the match, on return Murray looked to have lost focus with Nadal breaking on their return to lead 4-2. Murray though would break back immediately to level the set again. Murray was a couple of points away from losing the set, but it was the Scot who had the best chances to secure a second break, with 4 break points with score level at 5-5.

Murray failed to convert those points and the set went to a tie break – a faultless tiebreak performance would see the Scot win 7-3 and take a two sets to love lead.

Even though the duo did not complete the match it was Murray’s longest match of the tournament so far (almost 3 hours) giving you insight as to how competitive the match was. Only after Nadal called for the trainer during the second game of the third set did the watching audience have a clue that Rafa’s long standing knee injury may be recurring.

Murray will now face Marin Cilic who beat Andy roddick in a 5 set epic earlier in the day. After the match Murray once again spoke to Jim Courier on court,

I’ve known Rafa since I was 13 or 14 and he is someone I always looked up to when I came up through the juniors, he is my favourite player to watch with his energy and I am a bit gutted for him. I had to come through a few tough moments at the start of the match when I was going for it a bit too much but I played really well.

I had to go for my shots and play big tennis and when the big points come you have got to try to keep them short. You do not want to play long points against Rafa – I served and volley a little bit and everything went well.

Andy Murray produced an almost flawless performance to reach his first Australian Open quarter final as he squashed the challenge of American John Isner 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 6-2.

Murray needed just over 2 hours to book his place in the quarter finals – after a tight first set that was decided by a tie break, Murray managed to get hold of the giant Americans powerful serve and was able to break three times in the next two sets to secure a 4th consecutive straights victory at this year’s Australian Open.

Murray will face the current Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal in the quarter finals after the spaniard overcame Ivo Karlovic 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-4.

Murray’s serve remained unbroken the entire the match after his serve had been singled out for criticism in the lead in to the match. Though the Scot did need to save a crucial break point at the end of the first set to allow it to be decided on a tie break.

After the match Murray enjoyed his first on court interview with Australian TV interviewer and former player Jim Courier – Courier’s interviews often ending up in very random topics, though Courier joked that he would go easy on Murray since it was his first time. On the match Murray said,

I’m playing well – no question about that,  I just need to play like I have been, and maybe a bit more if I want to win the tournament. I thought it was a really good performance, out of those unforced errors, probably three of them were in the 6‑5 game in the first set, and a couple early in one of my service games in maybe the second set.

Andy Murray will continue his 2010 Australian open journey against 33rd seed American John Isner on Sunday. The match will be first match on the Rod Laver arena at 11am (midnight UK time).

So far in the 2010 Ozzy open Murray has yet to drop a set and in fact is the only man to have not dropped a set so far – he’s reached the 4th round on 2 previous occasions, losing to Rafael Nadal in 2007 and Fernando Verdasco in 2009.

This time though he is not taking on a Spaniard, his opponent tomorrow will be all 6ft 9ins of American John Isner. The 24 year old from Greensboro, North Carolina is currently at a career-high ranking of 28 and the new American number two after overtaking Sam Querrey.

Reaching the 4th round has equaled the American’s grand slam best after he reached the 4th round of the US open last year after 6 consecutive 1st round defeats in his previous grand slam attempts. Though we shouldn’t read too much into this when we look at his recent the big serving Isner has just won his maiden ATP title in Auckland and in the last round he upset 12 seed Gael Monfils and has served 81 aces so far in 3 rounds.

Murray and Isner have never played, though Murray’s record against Americans is pretty good, in the last 3 years he has lost just once in 17 matches – The match he did lose though was a crucial one to Andy Roddick in the semi final of last years Wimbledon.

Bookmakers see this as Andy Murray’s toughest test so far, though he is still odds on favorite to reach the quarter final for the first time. Betfair as usual has the best odds available on both a Murray win and Isner win.

Andy Murray’s thoughts on the 4th round match.

Playing against someone like him is so dangerous. It might come down to a few points. I’ll have to step up to the plate. He’s very similar to Karlovic, None of the guys really enjoy playing against him. He’s a bit better from the back of the court than Karlovic, but Karlovic probably volleys better. It will be a really tough match.

John Isner’s thoughts on the upcoming match,

It’s going to be a challenge to hold serve. That’s going to be my number one focus, and taking it from there, Andy’s such a really, really good player. I’m going to have to play really, really well to have a chance out there. He’s one of the fittest guys on tour. He really can do anything. He can play offence. He can play defence. He can mix it up really well. He’s one of the top favourites for the title I would guess. Him, Federer, Nadal, Del Potro, Djokovic. Andy might even be the favourite. Hopefully I can put an end to his run, but it’s going to be a tough task.

The 2010 Austrailian Open has now reached the last 16 stage, with all the major contenders for the title still in the event.

From start of the event until now Roger Federer has been the favorite to lift his 16th grand slam title, his odds had been slightly higher at the start of the week, but the best you’ll find now is at Betfair with 53/20 (3.65 decimal).

The second favorite is where the changes have been taking place, at the start of the week Rafael Nadal was second favorite and Andy Murray third, however after the first three rounds, they have switched places with Andy Murray now the second favorite and Nadal third. The best odds you’ll get on Murray is 5/1 and Nadal 32/5, both those at Betfair. Murray and Nadal though are scheduled to meet in quarter finals in the bottom quarter.

2008 winner Novak Djokovic is 4th favorite with inform player Nikolay Davydenko fifth favorite. Davydenko on course to meet Federer in the quarter finals.

Current US open champion Juan Martin Del Potro and 2009 Wimbledon finalist are 7th and 8th favorites and they are both on course to meet in their quarters final.

Best outside shot has to be Marn Cilic, who plays Del potro next and 400/1 outside Ivo Karlovic who meets Nadal in next round.

All of the third round matches are over with and the draw for the fourth round has now been sorted out.

In the bottom half of the draw all who were expected to come through their third round match did, with perhaps the exception of John Isner who took out 12th seed Gael Monfils. Isner’s reward for his victory is a 4th round match with Andy Murray.

Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick and Juan Martin Del Potro were made to work hard for their victories with all being pushed to 4 sets and forced all the way in that final set.

Andy Roddick takes on 11th seed Fernando Gonzalez, Rafael Nadal will face big serving Ivo Karlovic and perhaps the pick of the ties in the bottom half sees 14th seed Marin Cilic take on 4th seed Juan Martin Del Potro in a repeat of last years quarter final at the US open.

The top half of the draw is perhaps were the best match ups for the 4th round have come up. world number 1 Roger Federer takes former world no.1 and home favorite Lleyton Hewitt after both breezed through their third round matches.

And in the best match on paper 9th seed Fernando Verdasco takes on in form player Nikolay Davydenko. After his end of season success at the ATP world championships he followed it up with winning in Doha earlier this month beating both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on route.

Novak Djokovic plays Lukasz Kubot, who was handed a walkover in round 3 due to injury to Mikhail Youzhny and in the final match up 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga takes on 26th seed Nicolas Almagro.

The bottom half of the draw will play their matches on Sunday whilst the top are scheduled to play on Monday.

Andy Murray despite producing a top drawer performance produced yet another straight sets victory against Frenchman Florent Serra. The Scot winning in under two hours 7-5 6-1 6-4.

He will next face American John Isner in the fourth round.

Murray started the match well racing into a 3-0 lead, though some sloppy play allowed Serra back into the match and he eventually had work hard to avoid the set going to a tiebreak.

The second set was a walk in the park with Murray conceding just 1 game and despite a dip of form in the third the world number 4 was able to snuff out the challenge of Serra to record his 3rd consecutive straight sets win at this years Australian Open.

This is the third time Murray has reached the 4th round at the Australian open after being beaten at the same stage in 5 sets by Fernando Verdasco in 2009 and in 5 sets by Rafael Nadal in 2007, his two other Oz open adventures seen him lose in the first round to eventual finalist Tsonga in 2008 and Juan Ignacio Chela in 2006.

Murray’s opponent in the 4th round this time, 33rd seed John Isner,  beat the 12th seed Gail Monfils 6-1 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-5) in his third round match.

After Murray’s match he spoke to reporters,

The first set was a bit closer than it needed to be. I had chances to go 4-0 up, didn’t take them, and he started to get into it a little bit, But to win in straight sets is really important. Especially the second set was good.  - Isner is tough, he won last week and beat Andy Roddick at the US Open. He is 6’9″ and causes people problems.