Andy Murray has promised to cut Donald Young no slack when the two meet today for a place in the quarter-finals of the US Open in New York.

The American was responsible for the Scot's lowest point of the year when he beat him in Indian Wells in March.

The morale-sapping defeat came at a time when Murray was struggling to get over his defeat by Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open.

Now the No.4 seed wants revenge against Young, who at 22, is finally beginning to fulfil his promise.

When the left-hander won the Australian Open junior title at the age of 15 in 2005, he was hailed as the next great American, the successor to Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.

His junior Wimbledon triumph in 2007 merely added to the pressure and the United States Tennis Association showered him with wild cards into big tournaments.

But it was too much too soon. Unlike Rafael Nadal, who came through at the age of 16, Young could not cope physically and he was overpowered by bigger, stronger players, losing his first 11 ATP Tour matches. His confidence shot, he drifted down the rankings.

"If you think it's good for someone to be playing senior events when they're 15 or 16 years old, you're wrong because even when he was that age, the game had started to become really physical," Murray said.

"Maybe in the past it wouldn't have been too bad, but I think now you really need to make it a gradual progression.

"If you rush someone too early, they're not going to be physically ready.

"That's why it's better to wait and qualify for the tournaments rather than taking wild cards left, right and centre. That's just the wrong way to go about it."

Murray knows more than most what it's like to shoulder the hopes of a nation. But he reckons Young, currently ranked 84 in the world, can handle the home-crowd expectations – but hopefully not today.

Murray, though, said there was little to impress in his recent improvement.

"I am not really impressed because he's got a good game and it's taken him a lot longer than a lot of people would have expected as well.

"He's always had good pedigree. He was one of the best juniors in the world at his age. I don't think it's that impressive because he should be where he is now."

Murray has been improving with each match here, his straight-sets win over Feliciano Lopez on Sunday his best performance yet.

Having won the Masters title in Cincinnati leading into the US Open, he is confident and has cut a relaxed figure.

He has walked on to court for each match wearing his iPod – "I'm listening to a bit of everything, from Wycliffe Jean to Aretha Franklin to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers" – and has been focusing hard on his post-match recovery.

"I'm just trying to become more efficient," he said. "I'm doing the right things first.My priority is to get my massage, do the stretching, get the right food and the right fluids then do the press stuff.

"It makes a big difference. You're not sitting there stiffening up while you're answering questions. You're coming in when you're already recovered and you feel way better the next day."

Fed serves notice he is in title hunt

Roger Federer set the tone for an easy victory over Juan Monaco when he swept to a 6-1, first-set win in only 18 minutes in New York early today.

The Swiss then took the next two sets 6-2, 6-0 against the Argentine to set up a quarter-final meeting with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, with the Frenchman having beaten Federer in their last two meetings.

Top-seed Novak Djokovic saved four set points in a marathon first-set tie-break before rolling past Russian Alexandr Dolgopolov 7-6, 6-4, 6-2.

The Serb won the opening-set decider 16-14 on his sixth set point and did not look back. He now meets Davis Cup team-mate Janko Tipsarevic, who beat Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.