As if to dismiss McEnroe’s hint that the players were playing mind games, he added: “When you’ve got a 90 kilo guy lying on top of you, it’s not very pleasant”.
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“He’s served very well in this tournament so my returns will have to be on if I want to get through that one”.
It was a miserable performance by Haase, who took a set off Murray in each of their two encounters at the United States Open, most recently previous year, but was woefully out of his depth here.
As Murray’s fans roared in appreciation Haase joined in by tapping the frame of his racket.
But as the underdog charged the net seemingly set to kill off the point, Murray beat him with a crosscourt victor that dipped so sharply over the net it inspired Haase to literally stand applauding his opponent for producing a shot that was literally unplayable.
The two players were even at 4-4 in the first set when Federer broke Querrey with a trademark cross-court backhand passing shot – punctuated with a fist pump and a shout of “Come on!”
“I’ve got to worry about my match”.
The more aggressive approach paid dividends during a short spell of parity, but for every victor from Haase there was also an unforced error and Murray soon capitalised in the seventh game with another break.
The British number one said the shoulder felt “fine” after the match and did not believe there was any gamesmanship involved in either player calling for the stoppages. “He was to play [David] Ferrer in the first round – an extremely hard draw”.
Kvitova has dropped just three games in two matches so far after beating Kiki Bertens 6-1, 6-0 in the first round.
Murray confirmed the Duchess had shown him the wristband in her bag and a royal source revealed she was “delighted” with her memento.
“I heard that she was coming today”.
Sam Groth has hit the second-fastest serve ever recorded at Wimbledon, a 147 miles per hour (236 kph) victor against Roger Federer on Centre Court.
Murray was on course to face Nadal in the quarter-finals at SW19 but the Spaniard crashed out in four sets to world number 102 Dustin Brown on Thursday night.
The Italian has enjoyed an encouraging year, however, after he inflicted a shock defeat on Federer at the Australian Open, before losing to the Swiss in the final at Halle last month.
Famous names such as Sir Steve Redgrave, David Beckham, Andrew Flintoff, Lewis Hamilton and Mo Farah have in recent years watched the action from the best seats in the house.
The remarkable turnaround carried over into the fourth and a Seppi break in the opening game, the sixth in a row he had won, was enough to make Murray call a time-out of his own – this time on a shoulder problem.
Injured servicemen and women who competed in last year’s inaugural Invictus Games received a spontaneous standing ovation after they were introduced to the Centre Court crowd.
“I started very well and quickly, and then he played better tennis middle of the second set, and that’s what I expected”.
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The media has chosen to portray me as a pushy parent, and Andy and Jamie [her eldest son and Wimbledon 2007 mixed-doubles champion] do get annoyed about it. I’ve never pushed them to do anything. “The relationship is kind of different with all of them”.
