The way that Viktor Troicki was playing on Centre Court, he would have lost to Fred Perry's statue, never mind to the man who is attempting to become the first home champion since Perry in 1936.
With Troicki struggling with nerves on the grass at the All England Club, and with Andy Murray playing some superb tennis, the Briton won a one-sided third-round match in straight sets, and perhaps the only disappointment for the 15,000 spectators was that, as the world No 3 reached the second week of the Wimbledon fortnight, he had been playing indoors, not outdoors, on Centre Court.
The tennis public had been keen to see Murray competing under a closed Centre Court roof, which would have made Britain's world No 3 one of the first two players to compete indoors at Wimbledon. Still, they could have played this outdoors, indoors, in any sort of weather conditions, and Murray would still have obliterated Troicki, as the 22-year-old was in that sort of mood, making the most of his opponent's poor start, poor middle and poor end to the match. Troicki came a very distant second, and at one stage he let out a great yelp, a cry for help that would have carried up and out of the open-air stadium, all the way up the hill, past St Mary's Church and into Wimbledon Village. The message was this: 'I'm a tennis player, get me out of here'. Murray won 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in just over one and a half hours.
The only previous occasion that Troicki, the Serbian No 2 and the world No 30, had been on Centre Court, he had been in the stands, when he watched Roger Federer beating Andy Roddick in the 2004 final. And the 23-year-old, who is allergic to grass, is unlikely to want to come back to the stadium anytime soon if this is what happens to him on court. Even if a member of the All England Club ground staff had crept up behind Troicki during the pre-match warm-up, and had tipped a bag of grass cuttings over his head, he would hardly have looked more discombobulated out there than against Murray. Of course, Murray could have hardly have looked more settled. He hasn't played anywhere else during this year's tournament, and it is unlikely that he will feature anywhere else for the rest of the Championships either. For Murray, Centre Court is Wimbledon. For Troicki, Centre Court is where he had a primetime humiliation.
Murray's win over the Serbian No 2 took him through to play Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland's No 2 and the world No 18, who won an Olympic gold medal at last year's doubles competition, partnering his friend Roger Federer to the title. Wawrinka, who yesterday came from a set down for a four-set victory over American qualifier Jesse Levine, has equalled his best run at Wimbledon by reaching the fourth round, having also made the last 16 last summer. Murray has won four of his seven career meetings with Wawrinka, including a fourth-round match at last season's US Open, but tomorrow will be the first occasion that they have played on grass.
When Murray's match against Troicki began, shortly after 6pm, it was under dark grey skies, and the yellow numbers on the scoreboard were glowing. A few spots of rain suggested that a more serious downpour was possibly on the way, wet weather that would have seen the £100 million roof being used for the first time during a match. But, if the skies brightened up as the match continued, Troicki's tennis didn't. Still, at least the player from the Balkans did better than he had done when they met at the tournament on cement in Miami this year, when he only managed to take one game off Murray. The previous two occasions that Murray defeated Troicki, at an indoor hard-court tournament in St Petersburg last season and then at the Miami tournament, the Briton went on to win the title. But winning the St Petersburg and Miami titles don't quite compare with trying to win a tournament that the Americans sometimes call 'The Big W'.
For the second match in succession, following on from his defeat of Latvia's Ernests Gulbis on Thursday, Murray played magnificently, and his opponent simply didn't know how to handle the class off the Scot's strings.
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