It is a shame that the Queen does not show up more often when Murray plays. Her presence kept the crowd on their best behaviour- there was none of the 'Come on Andy' motif shouted after every single bloody point, just polite, or enthusiastic applause at times. Murray also wore one red and one white sweatband on his wrists, perhaps an attempt to curry favour with English football fans. The whole thing felt like an audience with the Queen. More cameras seemed to be pointing at the Royal Box than the court itself.
Seated behind the Queen, Tim Henman was probably annoyed by the fact that the Queen never turned up to watch him, although on reflection I wish I could erase his painful defeats by Sampras from my memory. It was the Queen's first visit to Wimbledon since 1977.
It was really a textbook performance by the Scot/Brit, and the thing that stuck out the most was his first serve, which was bang on all match. Murray brushed aside the Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, in just an hour and 42 minutes. He will face 26th seed Frenchman Giles Simon in the third round.
After he faced and saved four break points in his first service game, he would breeze through the rest of the match without facing another. The most impressive game of the match saw Murray serving for the second set, but 0-30 down. Three straight aces would set up a set point, and the British number one took it without any fuss.
Murray will need to serve like that when he faces tougher opponents later in the competition. Nadal and Federer usually have first service percentages around 70%, while Murray has a career percentage near 52%. Today it was in the mid-60s. He mixed up his game, showing Nieminen lots of different shots. Having brought his entire array of weapons on to court, the Finn had no answer to the barrage coming his way.
Today's performance saw the sort of tennis that Murray has been sorely missing since the Australian Open in January. Although Federer has struggled in his first two matches, I still see him progressing late into the tournament, and still a likely finalist. This grass court season has shown that he is vulnerable (as his loss to Lleyton Hewitt showed), but he will learn from the first two rounds of Wimbledon. Sometimes it takes a bit of a jolt to get you playing at 100%.
England are playing today in the second ODI against the Australians in Cardiff. Eoin Morgan's knock in the first game was an amazing batting display, hitting an unbeaten 103 off 85 balls.
It all gets too much for Landon Donovan, who gets the sniffles after the U.S.A's victory over Algeria.
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