My mate Andy has what it takes

On the face of it, he and Murray, who've known each other for five years while playing junior tournaments out in Spain, couldn't be more different. In their tennis and physical development, the temperamental stringbean in the cap and the relentless muscleman with the bandanna inhabit separate worlds, one dreaming of just winning a Grand Slam second-round match and the other, surely, of winning a second Grand Slam.

Yet there were times listening to them yesterday when they couldn't have sounded more alike; just two ambitious, excited kids getting pumped up by their adventure on the most famous courts in tennis.

Yet, compared to Murray, Nadal couldn't help appearing like an old hand. Separated by only a year in age but also by 309 world ranking places, perhaps the man from Majorca was thinking of his own meteoric progress over these past few months when he predicted that it wouldn't take Murray more than a few months to break into the top 100.

Certainly, the Spanish phenomenon - who won the French Open earlier this month - knows better than most about Murray's determination to get there, having been among those who once urged him to further his career by basing himself at the Sanchez-Casal academy near Barcelona.

There the Scot has indeed honed his considerable baseline game and it wouldn't surprise Nadal at all if the lanky Brit he used to face so often in junior doubles tournaments could soon join him in the most rarefied company.

"If he improves, for sure Andy can get to top 10 in the world," said Nadal. "I have good relations with Andy, I've known him for four or five years before with our junior competitions.

"I never played against him in singles, only doubles but I have watched him on the internet playing tournaments recently and he's playing good. He's young, he won his first Grand Slam match and that's good for England people too, no?"

Yes, Rafael, not to mention a few proud Scots. With a real freshness of spirit in the air at this Wimbledon led by the sport's two teenage superstars, Nadal and Richard Gasquet, it is terrific that we are not just relying on Tim Henman's familiarly maddening, inconsistent but compelling brinkmanship to keep us hooked.

When Murray says the Czech No14 seed Radek Stepanek should comfortably end his ambitions on a show court tomorrow, he is, of course, talking common sense but the great thing is that we know this lad would never dream of actually believing a word of such a defeatist suggestion. Stepanek is unpredictable but not unbeatable.

Yet while it would take a giant leap of the imagination to think that Murray could survive to next Monday to meet his old chum in the fourth round, it is odds-on that Saturday will witness a monumental third-round clash between Nadal and Gasquet, the French prodigy who won the Nottingham event last weekend on his 19th birthday to burst into the world's top 20.

One way or another, youth seems determined to have its day at this Wimbledon.