Melzer, the younger brother of former French Open semi-finalist Jurgen, was far from overawed and consistently caused the World No 1 problems with his powerful left-handed game.
"He played very well," said Murray. "Every time he was behind in the service games in the first set, he came up with some good points, was very aggressive. The intensity of the match was pretty high, a lot of running, long points and tight games."
The victory means that Murray's winning streak now stands at 26 matches at counting.
"I'm just trying to carry on from how I finished 2016 when I was playing some of the best tennis of my life," he said. "Last year the difference was really the improvements I made on my second serve.
"I won like 3% more points than I usually do. Doesn't sound like a lot, but over the course of a year it's a big difference. Hopefully I can still find things to get a bit better this year."
Novak Djokovic reached the last eight with a more straightforward 6-3, 6-4 win over Horacio Zeballos but the Serb was rather bemused when Zeballos immediately requested a selfie after the post-match handshake.
"I've never had that in a tournament before," said Djokovic. "But I thought it was a nice gesture. At the end of the day, two tennis players on the court try to outplay each other but once it's done, you leave it behind. It was just a minute or two after we shook hands but he was already over his loss. I applaud him for that."
Britain's Kyle Edmund will face World No 4 Stan Wawrinka in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International after both came through their second round matches.
Edmund progressed when opponent Lucas Pouille retired trailing the Briton 6-3 3-1 while second seed Wawrinka beat Viktor Troicki 7-6 6-4.
In the Aircel Chennai Open, Britain's Aljaz Bedene won his first round match against Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3 6-3.
But Britain are out of the Hopman Cup in Perth after Dan Evans and Heather Watson lost their round-robin match to France 3-0.
At this mixed-team international tournament, Evans lost 6-4 6-2 to Richard Gasquet and Watson was beaten 6-4 5-7 6-3 by Kristina Mladenovic before beating defeated 4-3 4-3 'Fast4' doubles format against the French duo.
And in the same competition, Roger Federer's return from a six-month injury layoff suffered a setback when German teenager Alexander Zverev triumphed 7-6 6-7 7-6.
Serena Williams' Australian Open preparation suffered a jolt with fellow American Madison Brengle stunning the World No 2 6-4 6-7 6-4 in the second round of the Auckland Classic.
Playing her first tournament since her semi-final defeat at the US Open last September, Williams was left to rue the 88 unforced errors she made against an opponent 70 rungs lower in the WTA rankings.
"I really think I played - I'm trying to think of a word that's not obscene - but that's how I played," said Wiliams, two weeks before the year's first grand slam at Melbourne Park.
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