Having bagged the opening set, Murray allowed himself to relax briefly. He threw in a string of unforced errors in the opening game of the second set, tamely handing the Spaniard the break. Buoyed by this, the former World Number 1 raised his level. For a while Ferrero looked destined to square the match. The British Number 1 caught himself just in time, though. He suddenly found his baseline game and began to hit his groundstrokes with authority. The Ferrero forehand, considered one of the biggest in the game a few years ago, look positively junior by comparison. Murray was now in full flow, playing some of his best tennis of the entire fortnight. At one point the Scot won 20 out of 21 points, using a mixture of power and guile. He won 5 games on the spin to take the second set.

There was no hint of a dip in the 3rd set. Some of Murray's tennis, particular towards the end of the match, was astounding. The Spaniard may as well have been throwing in second serves. The Scot was crushing everything and playing with abandon. The game at 4-2 was a joy to behold, as Murray stepped into a succession of returns and bulleted them at the feet of Ferrero. The Spaniard had no answer and soon found himself at the net for the handshake.

Murray goes on to the Semi-Finals on Friday where he will face Andy Roddick.

Murray confident heading into semi

There was a noticeable dip in the Swiss' level at the start of 3rd set. Murray, however, continued with the form he had shown at the end of the 2nd. In many ways it followed the same pattern as the set previous, except it was the world number 3 creating most of the opportunities. And once again the Scot was able to break towards the business end of the set. He then broke once more to add insult to injury, allowing himself to start the 4th set serving. Lesser men would have thrown in the towel, but inexplicably Wawrinka went from strength to strength. He again started to create opportunities on the Murray serve. The Scot appeared to be under almost incessant pressure, fending off one breakpoint after another. He was getting by on sheer determination for the vast majority of the set. His resistance was finally broken in the 11th game of the set, however. Wawrinka finally took one of his countless opportunities as Murray dumped a backhand into the net. The Swiss then served out to setup a nailbiting 5th set.

"Nailbiting" scarcely sums up just how nerve-wracking the final set of this match was. It was back and forth all the way. It was Murray who drew first blood, as he broke to race into a 3-0 lead. The Scot grew careless, however, and allowed the Swiss back into the match. As the match entered what Americans like to calling "winning time", it was Murray's mental fortitude that shone through. He created multiple breakpoint opportunities as he led 4-3. Wawrinka remained rock solid and refused to donate the break. The Swiss was not in a generous mood. Sensing this, the Scot took matters into his own hands, ripping a forehand winner up the line to break. £100 million was nearly laid to waste as the Centre Court crowd attempted to take the roof off. The noise was defeaning. Murray then served out the match nervelessly, before collapsing to the turf, an emotional and physical wreck. If anyone doubts what this tournament means to Murray, they need only look at his reaction at the conclusion of this match.

Murray will hope to recover in time to take on Juan Carlos Ferrero in Wednesday's Quarter-Final.

Murray was never in danger, and it showed in his relaxed, effortless nature of play. There was an overwhelming sense that the world number three could simply break at will, a dangerous sign indeed for the others in the draw as the tournament enters its latter phases.

Signs of rainfall were the only hindrance to Murray as he blazed through set three. As the court maintenance team gathered at the side, bedecked in green, Murray accelerated his play, firing down ace after ace to confirm the win, in rapid fashion.

The third seed will face Stanislas Wawrinka in the last sixteen. Wawrinka is a close friend of Murray, and is a technically astute player, but feels most comfortable on slower surfaces. Murray turned in one of his best performances in 2008 against the Swiss, dismantling him in straight sets at the US Open.

With Murray cutting through the draw with an iron fist, who would bet against a similar scoreline when they meet on Monday?

Things could only get better at the start of the second set for Gulbis and he duly steadied his ship by holding serve with a couple of aces. With a poorly-judged challenge against a Gulbis return that landed right on the baseline, Murray was taken to deuce in his first service game of the set, but his increasingly impressive delivery again averted any danger. As was becoming glaringly obvious, Gulbis was encountering problems when Murray could steer his first return into play, so he was relying on his big serve to function to have any chance of keeping Murray at bay. Certainly, if anyone was making inroads into the other's service games, it was the Briton. Gradually, however, the contest began to even up as the set moved towards a tiebreak. That tiebreak looked inevitable as they moved to 5-5, but some brilliantly placed rallying from Murray teased out the first break opportunity of the set, which he snatched up by coaxing an unforced error from the Latvian. With supreme composure, Murray battered down an ace on set point to seal it 7-5.

The third set threatened to take the shape of the first when Gulbis was taken to deuce in the opening game, but some more respectable net play to what had gone previously prevented him from being immediately put to the sword. The reprieve, however, was short-lived, as Murray was evidently in the mood for a quick finish and perhaps some dinner in Wimbledon village. Inviting Gulbis to join him in a battle of backspin backhands, Murray came out in top in that particular battle to fashion another break. From there on, Murray was in no mood to drop his intensity as he grabbed another break to put the seal on the win.

Following the indifferent performance against Robert Kendrick in round one, this was a very welcome showing from Britain's No. 1. With the weight of opening match nerves lifted, Murray clearly felt free to express himself and show just why there is real belief in him this year. He served imperiously throughout, barely allowing Gulbis even a sniff of a break.

Murray moves on to round three, where he will face Viktor Troicki, the Serbian 30th seed. That match will take place on Saturday.

Murray happy with improving serve

Kendrick did not deflate, however. If anything, his tennis continued to swell in nature, consistently pulling off an array of dramatic dive volleys and devastating forehands that skidded through the court with aplomb. He was full of swagger and confidence. Murray had the vociferous backing of the partisan crowd, but there was no doubt that it was his opponent who was providing the value for money entertainment. The set careered into a tie-break at breakneck pace, which Kendrick took in stunning fashion, ripping a forehand winner off a slow second service.

Fortunately for Murray, as he has stressed all week, round one is all about the result and he continued to fight hard, as the power of balance tilted towards the home favourite. Kendrick continued to dazzle, but it was the third seed who started to shift through the higher gears and ultimately, seize control of the match.

Murray celebrated with a fist-pump, it was an important win against an opponent who rose to the occasion beautifully. Waiting for the Dunblane native in round two, is Ernests Gulbis, who will no doubt play similar swashbuckling, aggressive tennis that Kendrick brought to the table this evening.

Murray pleased with 'tough' win

Murray has sympathy for Nadal

As he hoisted the winner's trophy on the pristine lawn of Queen's Club's centre court on Sunday, Murray's tournament victory was a hard one to put in perspective. Certain sections of the media needed no encouragement to unleash the hype, least of all the host TV broadcaster, for whom Sue Barker infuriated this writer with her violent lurches from emotional containment to the verge of hysteria. Murray's various detractors around the Internet dismissed his 12th career title as meaningless, pointing to the fact that his winning run featured no player in the world's top 15 and the relatively minor standing of the tournament. While the latter group certainly has valid statistical points to make, it would take a real curmudgeon to deny that there are true reasons for optimism in the days leading up to the start of the action in SW19.

After the relative disappointment of a quarter final exit at Roland Garros to Fernando Gonzalez (when Murray was outplayed and blitzed virtually throughout the contest), the Scot rebounded brilliantly. No matter the standing of the tournament in the context of the wider world tour, he could not have done much more to achieve perfection in winning at Queen's. Broken only twice in five rounds, he radiated total composure and authority from start to finish. After the long, gruelling clay season, when his fans longed for the eventual return to more comfortable surfaces, Murray was back to bossing opponents all over the court. His groundstrokes were simply too hot to handle, even for the experienced James Blake, who simply could not live with Murray's probing examination and bewitching shot selection. As far as tuneups go before a major event, Murray will now feel at one with the grass beneath his feet - his confidence is high, his game engine is purring nicely.

Roger Federer's ultimate victory at Roland Garros, while surely liberating for the Swiss, has in turn raised questions. Now that the burden of equalling Pete Sampras' Slam record has been achieved, will he be able to summon that desire again to compete for the biggest prizes? Did the victory mask cracks in his game that were apparent in titanic battles in earlier rounds? Will his impending fatherhood cause a shift in his life's priorities? Although these questions are difficult to answer comprehensively, one thing is for sure - the man is vulnerable and Murray should have great belief that he can beat Federer, in either a semi-final or final.

Rafael Nadal's shock defeat to Robin Soderling at Roland Garros was soon followed by news of injury concerns and a possible absence from Wimbledon. Should the usually invincible Majorcan take to the grass courts next Monday, he will do so with very bad preparation indeed. Should his body hold out to carry him to a semi-final or final, Murray should again believe in victory.

The most tragic hidden aspect of the great expectation and hope that engulfs Britain whenever Wimbledon approaches is that it is always tinged with a lack of belief. Tim Henman gave his all to reach that elusive final, falling four times in the semi-finals, but the question always asked - 'can you imagine what it would be like to see a Brit in a Wimbledon final?' - exists because that lack of belief exists. There is always the hope that the unthinkable will be achieved, but always with it the nagging doubt that such a thing could ever happen. The last time a Briton was victorious in the year's third Grand Slam, Adolf Hitler was viewed as someone to keep an eye on. The amount of time, constantly adding up since then, only serves to crush any belief further into the ground.

In Andy Murray, however, Britain has someone that it can truly believe in. Since his remarkable turnaround against Richard Gasquet in the fourth round of Wimbledon almost a year ago, on a sultry night when a switch seemed to flick on at the last possible moment, turning despair into ecstasy and shocking Murray into an unwaveringly upward trajectory, Britain has seen the arrival of a true winner. Since that night, he has beaten the best in the world, on numerous occasions and on some of the biggest of tennis' stages. While expectation may, if he allows it, serve to hinder Murray in repeating those feats at Wimbledon, he can instead turn it to his advantage. He can use it to fuel further the passion that already burns inside him. He should realise that winning tennis matches against the best is something that comes naturally to him. The difference here is that he has the support to spur him on to even greater heights.

Seven matches. That's all that stands between Murray and eternal greatness. He can do it.