Andy Murray treated an audience of British Olympic gold medallists to a sparkling display of tennis on Centre Court to reach the business end of Wimbledon for the second year running on Saturday.
The world number three, hoping to end Britain's seven decade wait for a men's singles champion here, trounced Serbian Victor Troicki 6-2 6-3 6-4, firing six aces in a row at one point during a display mixing controlled power with a silky touch.
Four times Olympic cycling champion Chris Hoy, rowing great Steve Redgrave and 800 and 1500 metres Athens champion Kelly Holmes were all in the Royal Box.
Martina Navratilova, winner of 20 Wimbledon titles, was also among the great and the good to watch Murray illustrate his title credentials with thunder rumbling overhead.
They would have been impressed by what they saw and Murray admitted he was slightly in awe of fellow Scot Hoy, who won three of his gold medals in Beijing last year and was knighted this year at Buckingham Palace.
"I didn't really know whether to call him Sir and stuff," the 22-year-old Murray told reporters. "I didn't speak to him for that long but he just congratulated me on the way I played and wished me luck for the rest of the tournament. "There were a lot of great sportsmen and women watching today. To get the chance to play in front of them was nice."
Murray's performances over the last two years, which have propelled him into the world's top three, have made him a household name in Britain and expectation is building that he can become the nation's latest sporting hero. Four more performances of the quality he has shown here so far would take him tantalisingly close to becoming the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry 73 years ago but Murray, as always, is taking it all in his stride.
"I'm very happy I won the three matches this week," said Murray, who plays Swiss Olympic doubles champion Stanislas Wawrinka in Monday's fourth round. "I hope that I can keep it going next week because my performances were pretty solid."
"(The expectation) is just one of those things you have to get used to dealing with. It hasn't troubled me this week. I'd be very surprised if it did next week." Murray, favourite to face five times champion and world number two Roger Federer in next Sunday's final, was unruffled by Troicki, a player he beat for the loss of just one game on the way to the Miami Masters title this year.
With light rain falling his main concern was finishing the match in case it got any heavier and caused a delay to close the new multi-million pound roof for the first time during a match at the grasscourt championships.
Despite some spirited play from Troicki, who finally eeked out a break point in the fourth game of the third set only to have an ace slammed past him, Murray made sure he was home in time for an early dinner. "I wanted to finish the match as quickly as possible," he said. "It would have been a nice bit of history, I guess, the first match to play under the roof but I wasn't that worried." "I enjoy playing indoors. But when it's sort of right at the end of the match I wanted to finish it before the rain came."
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