Quickfire Murray on the march

IN THE Royal Box Chris Hoy watched as his countryman continued his march through the top half of this Wimbledon draw. He knows as well as any that should Andy Murray fulfil the dream of the nation and become the first British player since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the men's singles he is likely to be his successor as Sports Personality of the Year.

A welcome afterthought, no doubt, but it is not the title Murray wants. He is set on a grand slam win and at the moment he is making it look pretty easy to progress to the stage where that is attainable. Yesterday, in front of another buoyant Centre Court crowd, he made light work of dispatching Viktor Troicki, sprinting through the match 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, the drizzling rain which threatened to postpone the match while the roof was closed seemingly disturbing him more than anything the Serbian could throw at him. In the end he didn't hang around long enough for the inclement weather to become a factor, wrapping up the play in 96 minutes.

The final shot was an ace, which could just as easily have been a description of the Scot on the day. He won 88 per cent of his points on first serve, 94 per cent of the points available when he came into the net and at the baseline he was as instinctive as ever in his returning. A total of 17 aces zipped past Troicki and he stuttered to just one double fault. He also faced only one break point on his own serve throughout the three sets. Decent statistics. But the fact that mattered most to Murray was that he won. He didn't necessarily care how, just that he had.

With drizzle in the air as the match got under way, he said the conditions had made it tougher to settle into the match. Troicki can be thankful of that because he still gave away only five points in his first three service games and by the sixth match he had sussed out his opponent's serve to such an extent that he got his first break to take a 4-2 lead. Holding in his next service game, he then wrapped up the first set in double-quick time, conjuring up an array of shots to secure a double break and the kind of advantage he was never likely to give up.

"After the first set I started to feel more comfortable," he said afterwards. "I played some good shots and served very well for a couple of games in a row."

At that time poor Troicki must have felt as much a spectator as the people sitting in the stand. One ace after another pounded down on him and even those he could get his racquet were proving tricky to return. Every now and then he seemed to shrug to himself, the action of a disgruntled man clueless when it came to find answers to the on-court riddles posed by his mercurial rival. Murray acknowledged that a few of his efforts would likely make it into a highlights package but said he wasn't going to dwell on them. The focus has already turned to the next round and Stanislas Wawrinka and he swept aside any notion that he has been tempted to look at the bigger picture or is beginning to be weighed down by the expectations which are elevated further with every dynamic display and uncomplicated victory. "I expect a lot of myself and if I have played poorly I'm the one who is disappointed with myself. But I'm not looking too far ahead, there are still great players in the draw." But how many of them can trouble Murray on this form?

In his first three matches he has dropped just one set, on a tiebreak. And none of his opponents have really looked like unlocking the secrets to bettering him.

After his third round match Federer, the man the bookies have tipped to face up to the Brit in the final in seven days, had given himself an A for his performances thus far. Murray was inclined to agree when it came to analysing his own. "At this stage all I have to do is win so I can give myself an A for coming through the first week. I hope I can keep it going next week because my performances were quite solid. The first match was quite tough and there were some difficult moments but I have come through them but I think I can raise my game to suit the quality of the opponent."

Troicki tried to take some of the polish off Murray's performance but like others before him, he came up short. Having succumbed so meekly in the opening set, the world No 31 must have hoped to make things harder for him in the second but Murray got the break in just the second game and rattled up a 3-0 lead before the Serbian could get on the scoreboard. In the end that one finished just as impressively for the Scot. His pace around the court was breath-taking and his persistence frustrated Troicki, who eventually let out a howl which could have woken the dead. It may have helped release pent-up emotion but it couldn't halt the inevitable as Murray completed the rout 6-4 in the third.

Afterwards he met Chris Hoy and that gave him the biggest conundrum of the day. "I wasn't sure whether to call him Sir or not," he said of the recently knighted triple Olympic gold medallist. "It was nice and there were a lot of great sportsmen and women watching today and to win in front of them was nice. I thanked him for his support and Chris congratulated me on my win and wished me well for the rest of the tournament." On this kind of form, good fortune may not be necessary.

MURRAY'S POTENTIAL ROUTE TO THE FINAL

FOURTH ROUND
Stanislas Wawrinka

The Swiss is an Olympic gold medallist but his chances of making the podium at Wimbledon are slim. He saw off American Jesse Levine in four sets yesterday but Andy Murray should provide him with a far stiffer test in the last 16. Solid if unspectacular, Wawrinka was immense in Beijing last summer when he partnered Roger Federer in the men's doubles.

QUARTER-FINAL
Fernando Gonzalez

Another Olympic gold medallist, the Chilean won doubles gold in Athens in 2004. He is renowned for having one of the hardest forehands on the circuit and has grand slam final experience, having lost to Federer in Melbourne in the 2007 Australian Open final. Has also reached the semis of the French Open but his best performance at Wimbledon is the quarter-finals in 2005. He eliminated home favourite Lleyton Hewitt from this year's Australian Open.

SEMI-FINAL
Andy Roddick

The American won through to the fourth round yesterday with a victory over Austrian Jurgen Melzer in four sets. It was the third match in succession at this year's Wimbledon that Roddick has dropped a set but the two-time finalist gave a powerful display in the fourth to win through. His opponent tomorrow will be 20th seed Tomas Berdych. A hard court specialist, his appearance in back-to-back Wimbledon finals in 2004 and '05 proved he's no slouch on grass.

FINAL
Roger Federer

The masterful Swiss faces Swede Robin Soderling in the fourth round tomorrow.

Dropped a set in the third round but came back to win with relative ease. Aiming for a record-breaking 15th grand slam title, beating Pete Sampras' record.