Wimbledon 2017: Andy Murray urges GB contingent to aim higher

The world No 1’s 6-3 6-2 6-2 victory over Dustin Brown meant there was success for all four home singles players on Wednesday, with Murray’s win following those of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson and Aljaz Bedene.

Kyle Edmund could make that five when he takes on Gael Monfils on Thursday, but Murray feels celebrations should be tempered.

He said: “It’s obviously good to have more players playing in the slams and winning matches.

“I know Heather and Jo won today. I saw Aljaz won, too. Hopefully we can keep going.

“I wouldn’t say this is the target, to get like five players into the third round.

“Obviously we want to try and do better than that.

“Aim as high as you can. Like why not try and get five, six players into the quarter-finals of slams? It’s better to set the goal as high as possible and fall a little bit short than go, ‘Yeah, we’re delighted with five or six players in the second or third round of a slam’.

“It’s not to say that getting to the third round isn’t good, but some of the players, like Kyle and Heather and Jo, they’re capable of doing more than that.”

Murray has been used to providing Centre Court drama over the years but this time he followed it after Konta’s three-hour epic against Donna Vekic.

Konta is through to the third round at Wimbledon for the first time and, as an established member of the top 10, has been tipped as a potential winner.

So could Britain complete a clean sweep of the singles titles?

“I have never thought about that, but obviously it’s not impossible,” said Murray. “It would be amazing if that was the case. I still say it’s unlikely, but it’s possible. Jo has played extremely well the last 18 months.

“She’s certainly good enough to win the tournament here. She got through a great match today. I believe that I can have a good run here. I can win, for sure. It’s going to be extremely difficult – but it’s possible.

“That’s obviously exciting for any tennis fans in the country to have players going deep in both the women’s and the men’s draw at slams.”

As soon as Murray won the first set against Brown it was clear the joy in their contest would come from the shot-making rather than the competitiveness.

Brown, a German-Jamaican with dreadlocks reaching down to his waist, is one of tennis’s born entertainers and the unorthodox nature of his game can cause problems for the best.

He famously beat Rafael Nadal at the same stage of Wimbledon two years ago, but Centre Court is Murray’s stage and the world 
No 1 did not allow himself to be bullied.

Tennis players love rhythm and Brown provides none, mixing 128mph second serves – his fastest serve was a second serve – with languid volleys and drop shots before throwing in a thumping backhand or two.

But Murray has some of the best hands in the game and was rarely outmanoeuvred.

He continued to limp but it was clear there should not be too much concern about his right hip as he scurried all over the court.

Murray said: “It was a good match from my end. I served well until really the last few games. I returned well. I didn’t make many mistakes. I hit a lot of good passing shots. So I was really happy with it, obviously.”

The victory maintains the 30-year-old’s record of never having lost before the third round of Wimbledon, and he moves through to a meeting with flashy Italian Fabio Fognini on Friday.

Brown could do little but admire his opponent’s performance, with the pair sharing a friendly exchange at the net.

“I just said, ‘Too good’, basically,” said Brown. “’Thanks for that lesson.’

“If he has a problem with his hip, I don’t want to play against him when his hip is good.

“I hit a lot of drop shots in the beginning, tried to get him in to see how the hip is, pull him into the forehand. From my opinion, he doesn’t really care about any of that stuff.

“He played really well.

“Most of the guys you play, you can try to find a way where you know you can hurt them. But today I had the feeling it made no difference what I did.

“When he was hitting ridiculous shots, I just laughed and said, ‘Good job, let’s see if he does it again’. He did it for three sets.”

Marcus Willis thrilled the Wimbledon crowd again as last year’s unlikely hero made a triumphant return in the doubles.

The 26-year-old, who battled through qualifying to face Roger Federer on Centre Court 12 months ago, failed to make it into the main draw in the singles this year.

But he and fellow Briton Jay Clarke, 18, were the darlings of a smaller, but equally raucous, crowd on Court Nine.

The duo fell two sets down to Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan of India and American Jared Donaldson but battled back to win 6-7 (4-7) 5-7 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 6-3.