Dustin Brown is a tricky opponent but Andy Murray can make it a brief encounter

1/42

For all Dustin Brown’s armoury of tricks, Andy Murray’s second-round match on Centre Court would be relatively straightforward in ordinary circumstances.

Brown’s serve-volleying approach plays to Murray’s passing strengths — perhaps with the exception of a similar ploy by Mischa Zverev at the Australian Open.

But when Murray steps on court, a question mark remains over his hip and how much it curtails his movement, such a facet of the game that has taken him to No1 in the world.

During any visit to the practice courts this week, including the hour stint Murray spent with fellow Briton Jay Clarke this morning, you could be forgiven for thinking the defending champion was on the cusp of joining the walking wounded from the men’s first-round draw such has been the hindrance to his gait.

But come match time on court against Alexander Bublik, it didn’t appear to be an issue, Murray running freely throughout a relatively straightforward three sets but still the eyes of an expectant public will be on that hip.

Murray’s predecessor as British No1, Tim Henman, said: “The first thing I’ll look for is his movement as he relies on that so much on court, and as we all know there’s still a question mark on the hip.

“He came through that first-round match fine but this is a step up in class for him in round two.

“Dustin Brown is a good grasscourt player and dangerous.”

Brown will be looking to keep the points short and sweet, serving and volleying in the knowledge that he has previously enjoyed big-stage success with such an approach in the past against Rafael Nadal two years ago at the same venue.

Wimbledon 2017 - In pictures

1/150

Murray, too, will want his outing on Centre Court to be as brief as possible, with tougher tests of his tennis and his fitness in the rounds ahead.

“Brown will want quick points to keep Murray away from his rhythm and you wonder how much running Andy wants to do with the soreness of his hip currently,” added Henman.

“But it doesn’t get away from the fact that his strengths as a player lie on the baseline.”

The Zverev approach in Melbourne will be in the mindset of both camps, Ivan Lendl conscious his player does not fall foul of that at an even earlier stage at a Grand Slam. At the Australian Open, Murray had been tipped to win the pair’s last-16 encounter but Zverev’s insistence on a serve-volley gameplan seemed to unsettle Murray from the off, and the Briton increasingly played second fiddle during the four-set encounter.

Regardless of the German’s approach, Henman predicted: “If he’s healthy, I think Murray will come through the Brown match comfortably as I can see Brown sustaining his approach well enough for three of five sets but that’s the if isn’t it.”

On paper, Murray and Brown are a gulf apart, 96 places in the world rankings separating each other.

Off the court, they know each other well having become friends as teammates with the Singapore Slammers in the International Premier Tennis League. During the course of the year, they exchange the occasional text although understandably those messages have been on hold this week.

Among Brown’s coaching team is Malte Stropp, who made no secret of the player’s on-court approach going into the match.

“We have to be aggressive, it’s the only way to go against Murray with his returning game,” said Stropp, as Brown signed autographs for fans in Wimbledon’s Fanzone yesterday. As for his player’s relaxed nature, he laughed: “He’s always relaxed.”

But there is a genuine belief that Brown can produce a similarly seismic upturn to his previous downing of Nadal.

As Stropp put it: “We’re planning for another shock.”

Much of that belief stems from the ongoing Murray if.

​Wimbledon and ATP analyst Craig O’Shannessy met with Brown and Stropp last night to help plot a premature end to Murray’s defence as questions remain on the hip.

But O’Shannessy, who has analysed Murray and the rest of the big four more than any other players on court, said: “The reality is that if Andy’s on — he’s finishing at the net well, he’s executing well, his mind’s well — he’s the No1 player in the world.

“He’s improved his serve a lot, he’s hitting that second serve a lot harder now and he’s more aggressive now.

“Even though his backhand is amazing and so dominant in the court, he’s looking for more runaround forehands in the court down the line.

“When he’s playing well, he doesn’t miss and jumps on anything that’s even remotely short.

“The one thing is that when he’s not doing well he becomes more passive and waits for his opponent to miss rather than play the role of the aggressor.”

However, such an approach of passivity today will be putty in the hands of the mercurial Brown, who has a propensity to fire down a first serve as his second as he plots to play the aggressor from the opening serve on Centre Court.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in