Foot-perfect Andy Murray is confident he won’t be a fall guy

With Federer and Nadal out of his side of the draw as well as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Murray is now fully expected to go the distance.

As three-time Wimbledon champion John McEnroe pointed out: “No offence but these guys are not household names.

“If Andy doesn’t get to the final, it will be an absolute catastrophe.”

But despite that growing expectation, Murray has appeared relaxed here and was in fine form when playing against Kyle Edmund on the practice courts yesterday, surrounded by coach Ivan Lendl and the rest of his team in an often light-hearted hour-long session.

In his matches he has looked good and fluent but he will be well aware that so did Federer in his first-round contest before becoming so spectacularly unstuck against world No116 Stakhovsky.

“Darcis beat Rafa, Roger has lost to Stakhovsky, who’s to say I can’t lose to Robredo in the next round?” asked Murray. “These things happen all the time in sport. People are so shocked because of the consistency of the top players for the last eight to 10 years.

“And I am sure other players will take confidence from what they have seen and play without fear. But I don’t worry about those things. If I don’t play well today, I’ll lose. That’s why I’ll be ready for that match and not worry about anything else.

“This Wimbledon has provided the perfect reminder that one bad performance and I’m out of the tournament. It’s another example of why every time you step on the court you need to be ready and you need to be prepared.”

While Robredo admits to having little recollection of his past encounters with Murray, joking, “Truly, I don’t remember what I did yesterday”, the Scot is a great statistician of his game and professional tennis as a whole.

Of the threat the Spaniard poses, Murray said: “He came back from two sets to love down three matches in a row [at the French Open]. He’s in fantastic shape and very strong. He has got a lot of experience, he knows how to win and it will be a tough match for me.

“He had quite a few injury problems last year which is the only reason his ranking dropped.”

Watching in the stands today at the behest of Murray’s mum, Judy, is teacher Keith Meisner, who penned a song just before the start of the Championships called Under the lights (Song for Andy Murray).

Among the lyrics, Murray is heralded as having a “game as sharp as a dagger” and being the “diamond of Dunblane”.

Having been asked by Murray’s mother to bring along his guitar today, Meisner is set to entertain the crowds on Murray Mount. The expectation by the hundreds gathered there is that Murray will win and win easily.