Murray wins Grand Slam... in his dreams

'About two days ago I dreamt for the first time in my life about winning a Grand Slam, actually winning match point at a Grand Slam,' said Murray.

'I woke up a few hours later and I was unbelievably disappointed. I just remember being on the floor in the last point. You know what dreams are like, they tend to be a bit strange and you can wake up and not quite understand what happened but I definitely, definitely won a Grand Slam.'

Despite Wednesday's defeat to Tommy Haas in the fourth round of the Pacific Life Open, Murray will head to his next event, the Sony Ericsson Open, in confident mood after a largely pleasing first three months of the season.

He has already won two titles this year and his continued development has given him cause to think that his dream might soon become a reality.

'It's the first time I have dreamt something like that. Now I feel like I'm ready to go on and get deep into the Slams,' he said. 'It's kind of made me realise that I'm not as far away from it as I was a few years ago.'

Murray's 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 defeat to Haas was hardly a disaster given that the German was once ranked No 2 in the world and held a match point against the Briton when they played in the quarter-finals at Indian Wells a year ago. Murray escaped on that occasion and would have escaped again had he been a little bit more consistent.

'I think it's easy when you're slightly younger to lose concentration a little bit,' said Murray. 'Maybe I did that a touch. Obviously guys like Tommy can up their level and play great tennis but even when they are doing that you have to maintain your level.'

Murray's brother Jamie had a far better day. He and partner Max Mirnyi scored a notable victory in beating the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, 5-7, 6-4, 10-6 in the doubles quarter-finals, courtesy of a first-to-10 match tie-breaker in lieu of a third set.

It was the second time in five weeks that Murray and Mirnyi had beaten the world No 1 twins, having defeated them in the final of the Delray Beach tournament last month.

The Bryans have finished four of the last five seasons as world No 1 team and have won five Grand Slam titles together.

No wonder Mirnyi was so delighted to get the better of them. 'It was so important to have won Delray,' said Mirnyi. 'To have beaten the Bryans in the final meant so much to both of us.'