After dealing a minor cold at the start of the US Open, Andy Murray is feeling better. The 2012 champion cruised past Thomaz Bellucci last night 63, 62, 75 to make the fourth round at the US Open for the 8th time.

“Today I felt much better. When I woke up this morning, I slept like during the day yesterday two or three times. Today I got up, and I slept again before coming out to the courts. Today I felt much, much better. My voice feels like normal again. Still dull obviously, but it feels more normal today and not blocked up or anything anymore, which is good.

“Yeah, that’s very positive.”

Murray had a scare in the second round Thursday in a comeback win over Adrian Mannarino. in the heat He says now he’s playing better as week two begins.

“Conditions were so much nicer to play in today,” he said. “After long rallies and stuff, you weren’t really struggling for breath as much. I also think, conditioning-wise, the first couple rounds, it really doesn’t get much harder than that. Maybe it will get bad again, but they’re some of the toughest conditions you’ll play in during the year. To get through those matches, especially the second one, was important.”

Next for Murray is the big-serving Kevin Anderson. Murray leads the South African 5-1 in their series.

“They’re always tricky matches,” Murray said. “But getting a lot of returns in play is something that throughout most of my career I’ve been good at. Often the big servers, they come into matches used to getting a lot of free points. It changes their mindset a little bit in the way they play the match and play the points. That’s why I think I’ve had good success against them in the past. But they’re always tough matches because you don’t get loads of opportunities normally.”