Andy Murray swats Gulbis aside

Andy Murray has impressively beaten Ernests Gulbis in the second round of Wimbledon, outclassing his young Latvian opponent to come through 6-2 7-5 6-3. Delighting the Centre Court crowd in the early evening sunshine, the Scot showed his credentials as one of the main challengers for the title.

There were stirrings in the media of a possible grudge between the two following Gulbis' earlier comments about their last encounter, but both players moved to defuse any tension before the match. Nevertheless, both men will have felt that they had a point to prove - Murray to build on his slightly below-standard performance against Kendrick in round one, while Gulbis will have wanted to show that he can capitalise on the potential that many pundits felt he had a year or so ago.

Immediately, Murray had the Latvian battling to hold his serve by taking him to deuce in the first game, but Gulbis displayed his trademark big delivery to dig himself out of the early hole. Gulbis looked to be holding the early advantage with two break points in the next game, but Murray showed himself to be the equal of the man from the Baltic with some huge serves of his own. Indeed, huge serves dominated the embryonic contest until, at 2-2, Murray eked out two break points with his superior variety, taking the second to grab a hold of the match. The magician from Dunblane began to step up the pressure, his innate defensive ability forcing Gulbis into playing one inferior ball too many. One brilliant cross-court winner and satellite-guided backspin lob at 4-2 up had Gulbis scrambling to stay within touching distance early on. It was starting to look like a man against a boy, with Murray's experience and featherlight touch bamboozling Gulbis, negating his power play. For Murray's legion of fans, this first set was manna from heaven, as the full range of his abilities was laid out to admire. Winning 16 straight points on his serve, the Scot closed out the set 6-2.

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.