Murray's more of a danger than Federer, claims Safin

Russian Safin, who turns 29 later this month, has played Federer 11 times - winning just twice - and knows what to expect. However, that is not the case with the new group of stars, headed by Murray - who he has faced only once in 2005 - and defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Safin, winner of the Open in 2005, said: "Murray is playing incredibly well and the young guys like him are more hungry and have much more confidence than me, which is normal. They are making finals left and right and are not scared. So it's very difficult to compete against them."

Murray will be delighted to hear one of the game's big names singling him out for special mention, something that is happening regularly now he is considered a real title contender after an unbeaten start to 2009.

The world No4's match against Spain's Marcel Granollers will be the final clash on centre court tomorrow after Australian TV bosses decided they wanted to show the match in prime-time Down Under. Murray was today putting in some extra work following his first-round clash 24 hours earlier against Andrei Pavel, which ended after just 45 minutes when the Romanian pulled out with a bad back.

As the on-site practise schedule would have only allowed Murray 40 minutes' play, he decided to move to courts at nearby Kooyong where he trained for two hours.

Murray is confident of accounting for Granollers, a player he met regularly in the juniors. He said: "I beat him quite a lot as a junior and the one time we played in the seniors I won against him but they were always close matches.

"He's got a really long reach and he plays quite differently to a lot of the Spanish guys. He comes forward a lot and he has pretty decent volleys and a big serve, so is quite different to a lot of them."

Defending men's champion Djokovic recorded a 7-5, 6-1, 6-3 win over Frenchman Jeremy Chardy and is happy with his form in Melbourne. For Safin, form is something that depends on which side of the bed he gets out of in the morning. One of Safin's rare wins over Federer came in the 2005 semi-finals in Melbourne but, since then, they have enjoyed very different careers.

Safin said: "Roger won a couple of Grand Slams afterwards while I got injured, so we went in different ways. He got much more confident throughout the years whereas I had to recover from injury.

"I am looking forward to the match and I have nothing to worry about. He knows how to play against me, I know how to play against him. I had my best years a few years ago before I got injured and now it's much easier to play without any pressure. This year I am serving much better, which gives me a lot of advantage so it's a little bit easier."

While Safin had a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 win over Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Federer strolled to an impressive 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russia's Evgeny Korolev.