Mercifully, the Met Office has been telling us things will cool down a touch today. Not on No.1 Court, they won’t. Even if the mercury fails to top 100F there as it did on his Centre Court pilgrimage on Tuesday, there can be no escaping the furnace of expectation for Andy Murray.
After Wednesday’s ‘I was there’ afternoon, when temperatures were more sweltering than ever recorded during The Fortnight, even eclipsing the summer of 1976 when the coolest thing on view was Bjorn Borg’s headband, Robin Haase fancies he can provide the heat.
“I will try to find a weakness. I have proven that I have beat him once. Maybe it's a long time ago, but still, I beat him,” booms the man from The Hague who, a decade ago, reached the boys’ final here.
Fighting talk, this. Haase is still encouraged by the distant memory of that 2008 win in Rotterdam and, more recently, by pushing Murray over four testing sets at Flushing Meadows. He will also have been encouraged by the Scot looking a mite uncomfortable and forced on the defensive during his first-round win over Mikhail Kukushkin.
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Yet as a rarity, deep into the first week, Murray will be delighted that he is not the sole focus of British attention. Following Heather Watson’s march to a meeting with Serena Williams, James Ward and Aljaz Bedene are on Thursday hoping to make it three home-based men into the third round for the first time since 1999, when Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Danny Sapsford all reached the last 32.
Robin Haase
Ward, seeking uncharted third round territory in a Grand Slam, has his work cut out on No.2 Court against Jiri Vesely, a young 6ft 6in Czech prospect who won the Australian Open boys’ title and last year despatched Gael Monfils here.
The progress of Bedene, the most intriguing British tennis import since Rusedski, is going to become a consuming topic by the look of how the Slovenian-born British No.2, who qualified for citizenship in March, knocked out the feisty old campaigner Radek Stepanek in five sets.
Now the man from Welwyn Garden City via Ljubljana, whose enthusiasm for his first Wimbledon triumph was wholly engaging, is pitted on Court 12 against Novak Djokovic’s great pal Viktor Troicki, whose fine recent form saw him reach both a grass-court final in Stuttgart and the semi-finals at Queen’s.
Rafael Nadal, Troicki’s conqueror in Stuttgart, may be involved in the match of the day on Centre Court. That wondrous left eyebrow must have shot northwards when the two-time champion found his second-round opponent would be 6ft 5in Dustin Brown, the exotic dreadlocked maverick made in both Germany and Jamaica.
At Halle last year, Brown gave Nadal a fearful hammering with what he felt was perhaps the performance of his life. “He's not a usual player. Anything can happen. Is a dangerous match,” says Nadal, who has good reason to dread the ‘Dreddy’ sequel.
Roger Federer, predictably, never even seemed to break sweat in his opener. He looks in pristine form. Your Centre Court mission, big-serving US hopeful Sam Querrey, should you choose to accept it, is to at least make the great man perspire.
The catchweight contest of the day sees Japan’s world No.57 Kurumi Nara, who can pack a wallop in her forehand for a 5ft 1in bantamweight, against defending champion Petra Kvitova, who continues to demonstrate that she is a genuine heavyweight of the women’s game.
He's not a usual player. Anything can happen
