Andy Murray beats Jeremy Chardy in Australian Open quarter-finals

Andy Murray is through to the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the fourth year in a row after a swift win against France's Jeremy Chardy.

The Briton, 25, kept up his record of not having dropped a set this year with a 6-4 6-1 6-2 victory in one hour and 51 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Murray, the third seed, will face Roger Federer in the last four after the world number two beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets.

And he will expect a far more serious examination than anything he has experienced so far at Melbourne Park.

"I think you have to trust yourself that when you are tested, you're going to play better tennis," said Murray.

"You never know for sure, but in the build-up to the tournament I played very well. I haven't lost a set here yet, so maybe I'm expecting to play too well or whatever. But I've done a good job so far in this tournament. I can't be disappointed with where my game's at."

Chardy, ranked 36th, was appearing in his first Grand Slam quarter-final compared with Murray's 15th, and had won their most recent encounter in Cincinnati last year.

The 25-year-old Frenchman also caused the biggest surprise in the men's draw in Melbourne when he beat sixth seed Juan Martin del Potro in round three.

But Murray led their personal duel 4-1 overall and was well aware that Chardy favoured his huge forehand - he would spend much of the match skipping sideways around his backhand to wind up on that side.

It was the US Open champion who came out firing, breaking straight away when Chardy dumped a volley into the net and quickly running through the first four games.

After such a poor start, and with the set seemingly gone, Chardy began to swing freely and put some pressure on the Briton.

A break to love helped him cut the deficit to 4-3, and Murray was in some trouble serving at 30-30 but came through with a service winner and a second-serve ace down the middle.

The Scot converted his third set point after 44 minutes and made his move early once again in the second, which ran a similar course to the opener.

A backhand lob and a deep return helped him break in game three and a 4-1 lead looked to be enough.

Chardy again threatened a comeback but, facing two break points in game six, Murray hit a fizzing cross-court winner before some elastic defence helped him save the second.

The Briton was in the mood now, showing the form of a Grand Slam contender for the first time in the tournament.

Murray stretched his run of unanswered games to eight and, despite prolonging matters by dropping serve with victory in sight, his afternoon's work leaves him as fresh as he could wish for Friday's semi-final.

He later revealed that he would be heading out on to the Hisense Arena, the second show court, to practise under lights.

Murray has yet to play a night match on Rod Laver Arena this year, but said: "The scheduling for me is part and parcel of playing in really any tennis tournament. It's tough to make the schedule perfect for every single player.

"But I'll go out and hit balls on the Hisense tonight under the lights. I'll do the same again tomorrow, and that's it. If I was the tournament director or the referee or whoever decides the schedule, I also would have put Federer against Tsonga on as the night match tonight because it's the best match of the day.

"So I have no complaints about the schedule at all, and I didn't complain about it the other day."