by Birmingham Evening Mail

Britain's Olympic knights know an exceptional performance when they see one and they had just witnessed Andy Murray potentially take a step towards joining them in sporting greatness.

On a gloomy evening with raindrops falling and groundsmen hovering, eager to give the new Centre Court roof its first competitive outing, Murray defeated Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-2 6-3 6-4 to surge into the second week of Wimbledon .

The way he did so will ensure expectation levels float around the level of the stratosphere when he faces Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka today in the fourth round.

And well they might. On this performance, albeit against a man ranked 31st in the world who had never played on Centre Court before, it is difficult to see anyone on Murray's side of the draw stopping him from reaching the final next Sunday.

And he admits he has thought about a Murray-Federer final, even if he has tried to put it out of his mind this past week.

Murray said: "I'd obviously love to get to the final. But there is still a lot of Tennis to be played.

"You think about it more three or four months before the tournament starts. When the tournament comes, it's not what I'm thinking about. I'll be concentrating on Wawrinka and trying to get through the next match.

But at every tournament I go in with From Frank Malley at Wimbledon the mentality that I'm going to win the tournament. If you don't, then when you get into a winning position you get nervous or you're not expecting it. Sometimes that can get to you mentally.

"If you go into every match believing you can win and giving it your best shot, then you're not going to be totally shocked if you get to that position where you're serving for the match. But I don't feel I put any extra pressure on myself for this tournament." There was little pressure on show against Troicki as Murray out-hit, out-smarted and out-classed his opponent.

John McEnroe proclaimed Murray's serving, with 17 aces, as good as it has ever been. Others described the way he turned defence into ripping attack as 'Federesque'.

Compliments do not come much better than that.

The fact is there is nothing to choose between Federer and Murray at this tournament so far. They both appear in imperious form. They have both lost just one set. They both possess a game fleet of foot and full of extraordinary shot-making.

Not that Murray was overly bothered about his performances.

"All I want to do is win the matches," he said. "I don't care how badly or how well I played. I was very happy I won the three matches. I hope I can keep it going next week because my performances were pretty solid.

"I'm able to raise my game to the quality of the opponent and the situation.

I'll try to do that as best as I can on Monday." Troicki, who in his career has beaten the likes of Andy Roddick, Novak

Djokovic and David Nalbandian, never stood a chance from the moment his nerves betrayed him in the sixth game of the first set, when he threw in two double faults and a weak forehand into the net to gift Murray the crucial service break.

Murray's game plan, as it often is, clearly was to deprive his opponent of pace, to lure him into errors. It worked perfectly. Troicki had lost both his previous matches against Murray, winning just one game in their most recent encounter and the gulf in class was plain to see.

But perhaps the point which illustrated Murray's success more than any came with Troicki on advantage on his own serve in the first game of the third set.

A lob sailed over Murray's head, the sort most players would not contemplate chasing. Not the dogged Scot.

He turned, ran down the ball and possessed the class to throw up such a precise lob of his own that he won the point when his opponent smashed into the net for a point which set up yet another break of serve.

Such industry allied to talent is a winning combination as gold medal-winning cyclist Hoy, who Murray met after the match, would have appreciated. It provided his one problem of the day.

"I didn't really know whether to call him Sir and stuff," said Murray.

"I didn't know how that works. I think I called him Chris. He just congratulated me on my win and wished me luck for the rest of the tournament." On current form Murray is master of his own fortune.Djokovic and

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