Yesterday was Australia Day, an event celebrated with barbecues and fireworks galore, but Andy Murray is determined not to let those celebrations spill over into an extra day when he takes on home favourite Nick Kyrgios in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open this morning, UK time.

Having disposed of Grigor Dimitrov in the previous round in probably his best grand slam performance since back surgery 16 months ago, Murray knows he will be the pantomime villain against the 19-year-old Kyrgios.

The Australian is the first teenager since Roger Federer to reach the quarter-finals of two grand slams, fine footsteps in which to follow, and Australians are getting underdtandably excited about his chances both this week and in the years to come.

But Murray has the experience, the fitness and a renewed belief that he is back to his best and will be confident of putting the young upstart in his place.

"There are more matches against younger players in latter stages of these events now," Murray said, writing in his column for Melbourne newspaper The Age.

"It feels a bit different, the pressure is a bit different: my experience is something I can draw upon now.

"When I was playing in the last stages of these events a few years ago, I was playing against guys who had way more experience than me, with obviously Rafa, Novak and Roger.

"It's a good position to be in to have a little bit more experience."

Murray has been keeping an eye on Kyrgios's performances and perhaps sees a little of himself in him, if not in his playing style but then in his liking for the big stage and his ability to step it up against the biggest names.

It was 10 years ago that Murray first played at Wimbledon and experienced the support and pressure of having a whole crowd on his side.

That he beat Radek Stepanek to reach round three on his debut and then Andy Roddick the following year showed Murray was at ease under that sort of attention from a young age.

Kyrgios will have enormous support - as he did when he came back from two sets down to beat Andreas Seppi in round four - but he will be in unchartered waters for he has never played on Rod Laver Arena before.

The scheduling has been something of a bone of contention in Melbourne this year, with most of the Aussies, including Kyrgios, being kept away from the main stadium court.

The word behind the scenes is that it has been at the players' request, that they don't want to get over-hyped too soon.

But the upshot of it all is that Krygios will have to deal with a new surrounding as well as the pressure of a grand slam quarter-final and facing someone as good as Murray.

Murray won't care about the crowd being against him - he's 10-0 against Australians in grand slams - and as long as he recovers well from the Dimitrov match, he will be confident of going through to the last four.

"I enjoy playing in that big match atmosphere so if I can conserve my energy and not worry about what everyone else is saying, when I get on the court then I can use the atmosphere to my advantage," he said.

Murray and Kyrgios have met just once on the Tour, in Toronto last summer, shortly after the Australian's run to the last eight at Wimbledon, where he beat Rafa Nadal.

The Scot won that one easily enough and though he knows Kyrgios will come out firing, he feels he has the edge.

"There were some things that I did in that (Toronto) match which I believe will work (again)," he said. "So I've learnt stuff from playing against him there and at the IPTL and watching him a bit, stuff that I feel I can use and exploit in his game. Hopefully it works well."

This will be Murray's 16th consecutive quarter-final in a grand slam, a record he's rightly proud of.

"It's very, very good," he said. "I've tried my best to prepare as well as I could for all of the slams over the last five, six years and I think my results have showed I have played my best tennis, or played very consistent tennis, at the slams.

"It's not easy to get to the latter stages of these events. Obviously I had some physical issues as well the last 18 months or so. So it's nice. Hope I can use that experience of being in these situations before."

The winner of Murray-Krygios will face a semi-final against either Nadal or Tomas Berdych, a match due to be played overnight and one with added significance now that Dani Vallverdu, the Scot's former assistant coach, is now in the Czech's corner.

Yesterday, world No 1 Novak Djokovic continued to wend his merry way toward the final with a 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

He'll play eighth seed Milos Raonic, who scrambled past Feliciano Lopez in five sets, while the other quarter-final sees defending champion Stan Wawrinka up against US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori.

Jamie Murray's men's doubles hopes were ended as he and Australian John Peers narrowly lost to fourth seeds Marcelo Melo and Ivan Dodig, but he was due in mixed doubles action overnight alongside partner Chan Hao-Ching of Taipei.