The Queen is not known for her love of tennis, as she prefers the horses, and she hasn't been spotted at Wimbledon since Virginia Wade won the women's title in the summer of 1977.
And yet she felt moved to write a letter to Andy Murray to congratulate him on winning the pre-Wimbledon tournament at Queen's Club, and perhaps a television set in Buckingham Palace was tuned in to Murray's second-round match with Ernests Gulbis on Centre Court on Thursday night. If the Queen saw this, 'one' would have been rather impressed.
With Murray hitting the ball so sweetly that he made just five unforced errors all evening, including none at all in the first or third sets, he easily dealt with a potential member of the grass-court awkward squad. Still, Murray was also helped along into the last 32 by the fact that Gulbis, a talented 20 year-old Latvian who is rumoured to have travelled to tournaments in his multi-millionaire father's private plane, appeared to have left some of his self-confidence on the leather seats of daddy's Lear Jet. Murray played his game; Gulbis didn't.
The novelist Martin Amis once suggested that you could divide tennis professionals as you can divide those boarding an international flight - there are economy-class players, club-class players and those up in first class. Murray performed like a first-class player, Gulbis like someone who should have been turning right on boarding.
As the match continued, Britain's last remaining representative in the singles draws became ever more relaxed, at the same time that Gulbis appeared to be trusting himself and his ability less and less. Gulbis wasn't quite staggering and stumbling around the Centre Court grass like a beer-soaked British stag-party on the streets of Riga, but he wasn't far off either.
Murray's tennis was of a considerably higher quality than it had been in his opening appearance of the tournament, against American Robert Kendrick. The crowd liked it. "I love you Andy," someone suddenly blurted out between points. "I love you more," another voice immediately countered from the other side of the stadium. Murray was also getting the Anna Kournikova treatment - mid-match proposals of marriage.
Murray was so good that Gulbis was never allowed to settle. During last summer's Wimbledon fortnight, Gulbis and Roger Federer were the only two players who took a set or more off the eventual champion Rafael Nadal. Gulbis went a set up in his second-round meeting last season before the Majorcan achieved a four-set victory. So Gulbis had a fine year last season, peaking at No 38 in the rankings.
And there were moments on Thursday night when you could see why he had troubled Nadal; he was serving at 130mph and quicker, and he was crunching a few forehands through the court. The only two breakpoints that Murray faced on his serve were in his opening service game, and he didn't allow Gulbis to break on that occasion.
But there were also moments when you could see why Gulbis had walked on to Centre Court last night still hoping to win successive matches at a tournament for the first time this season. His decision-making was suspect, and so was a lot of the execution. Gulbis dropped his serve the first time because he struck a forehand long over the baseline, and he lost his delivery again in the opening set when he dragged a backhand volley into the net.
When Murray served for the set, he reached set point with a fine drop-shot, and converted it with an ace struck down the 'T' of the service-boxes.
The second set was on serve until Murray broke for 6-5 when Gulbis, at breakpoint down, couldn't lift his backhand above the white tape of the net. Murray served the set out. When Murray broke early in the third set, any tension in the crowd immediately dissipated. Murray wasn't going to lose from there.
The seats have been widened on Centre Court this summer, to accommodate the growing British bottom, and the 15,000 spectators could sit back in new, padded comfort. When a Mexican Wave went around Centre Court during a changeover, even those in the Royal Box joined in.
The pre-match storm in a Pimm's cup wasn't, in the end, a factor. Beforehand, Gulbis had implied that, when they played at Queen's last summer, Murray had taken a medical timeout when there had been "nothing" wrong with him. So Murray had denied any gamesmanship, and sounded disappointed at the insinuation.
But there was no trash-talking on Centre Court, no changing-of-ends shoulder-bumping, and the handshake at the close appeared fairly friendly. An official from the Palace was saying yesterday that the Queen does not have any official engagements a week on Sunday, the day of the men's final.
With Murray attempting to become the first home champion since Fred Perry in 1936, the danger is that everyone, perhaps even the Queen, starts getting ahead of themselves.
Who's next for Murray?
Serbian No 2 Viktor Troicki is the man standing between Andy Murray and a place in the second week at Wimbledon.
Troicki, 23, who was inspired to play tennis as a child by Andre Agassi, beat Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-7, 6-0, 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a match that finished in the fading light at 9.21pm on Thursday night.
Murray, who is yet to drop a set against the right-handed Serb in two encounters, lost just one game when they met in March as the British No 1 progressed towards the Miami Masters trophy – his third of four titles so far this season.
The 30th seed’s defeat of Gimeno-Traver, which Murray watched from an overlooking balcony, means he has bettered his second round showing of last year, when he lost to Radek Stepanek on his first appearance on the grass courts of SW19.
It will be the second time Troicki has reached the third round of a grand slam after he won two matches at the US Open last year before being sent home from Flushing Meadow by world No 1 Rafael Nadal.
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