On the day when England’s cricketers begin the pursuit of the Ashes in Wales, a Scotsman will take some shifting from centre stage as Britain’s splendid sporting summer is elevated to a new level of intensity.
The last time Andy Murray and the cricketers were firing in a hot July two summers ago, the Wimbledon champion and Ashes victors were between them blamed for plummeting sales in the high street as a bewitched nation sat goggle-eyed in front of the box.
So there could be a few twitchy retail bosses out there as Murray, in his eighth successive Wimbledon quarter-final, appears to have the most inviting route into the last four of any of the favourites for the gentlemen’s singles.
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Naturally, this could be a dangerous illusion even if Murray’s Centre Court opponent, Canada’s Vasek Pospisil, is – at No.56 on the ATP computer – comfortably the lowest-ranked player left in the draw.
I'll have to be more aggressive, play more risky
He has never been this far in a Grand Slam and has lost all six sets in the three matches he has contested with the world No.3. Murray “selfishly” hopes that Pospisil could be jaded after playing two five-setters in singles and doubles over nearly six hours on Monday.
Yet there is a fresh fearlessness about the 25-year-old from British Columbia. He says he is nourished by his previous trip to Centre Court, when he won last year’s gentlemen’s doubles title alongside Jack Sock.
Murray, of course, takes nothing for granted, especially after Kevin Anderson put Novak Djokovic through what the Serb called “one of the hardest matches I’ve ever had here” before finally booking his place against Marin Cilic for the second Centre Court clash.
That bloody-minded champion’s mentality which propels Djokovic was never more glaring against Anderson, whose all-out attack at least flagged up the only realistic pathway for the Croat who, while having lost all 12 meetings with Djokovic, came closest in their five-setter here last year at the same stage.
“I'll have to be more aggressive, play more risky,” says Cilic, believing he can regain the unplayable form which fuelled his 2014 US Open triumph.
Stan Wawrinka has a similar air about him at present. Once upon a time, he was an unquestionably talented nearly-man, good enough only to reach two quarter-finals in his first 34 Grand Slams.
Then, as in all good fairytales, a switch was flicked and he has reached eight quarters in his last 10, featuring glorious triumphs at Melbourne and Roland Garros and even some bullying of his lordly Swiss pal Roger Federer. ‘Stan the blue collar Man’ can now even swan around naked in an ESPN calendar doing a decent Greek god impression.
Many moons ago, this was the sort of golden future mapped out for Stan’s contemporary, Richard Gasquet, a world junior champion prodigy who, from the time his nine-year-old face adorned a French magazine, was destined for “la gloire".
Alas, it has never quite come to pass for Wawrinka’s gifted opponent in Wednesday's battle of the blistering backhands on No.1 Court. Astonishingly, in 44 Grand Slams, Gasquet has 16 times been knocked out in the last 16 and only three times reached the quarters, which makes this feel like a major breakthrough, eight years after he reached the semis here only to be dismantled by Federer.
Which is what Federer tends to do here. The craziest fact of Wimbledon 2015? He has won all 58 of his service games, plus 49 from his victorious run in Halle. So, that’s 107 consecutive grass-court games unbroken.
“But Gilles Simon is one of the best returners in the game, so that streak’s maybe coming to an end,” smiles Federer of his latest opponent.
True, Simon could conceivably give the great man problems on No.1 Court. In France, they call the stick-thin world No.13 ‘Poussin’ but although ‘the little chicken’ has lost their last five matches, he has twice taken Federer to five sets in Slams. The old Swiss cockerel can’t start crowing quite yet.
