Andy Murray took out Robin Haase with his racquet and the Duchess of Cornwall with his sweatband as he stormed into the third round at Wimbledon.
The number three seed was totally ruthless a highly-efficient 6-1, 6-1, 6-4 demolition of his Dutch rival – who he left flat-footed with a steady succession of accurate winners.
He wasn’t so accurate as he left the court though, throwing his sweatbands into the royal box in celebration, a souvenir gratefully gathered up by the All England Club’s star guest of the day.
“I heard that the Duchess of Cornwall was coming today and I saw her briefly after the match,” he said.
“Thankfully the wristband actually hit the chairman of Wimbledon, he was there next to her. Normally you see who catches it. Then the Duchess opened up her bag and my wristband was in there, so he obviously had given it to her.”
A soaked sweat band is hardly the ideal gift to the wife of the future King but in truth Murray didn’t really work up a sweat in this one-sided show, which was in stark contrast to his less confident first round encounter against Mikhail Kukushkin.
Haase, ranked 78th in the world, pushed the Scot hard at last year’s US Open and took him to five sets at the same tournament in 2011.
However, Murray stamped his authority on the encounter with a third game break and never really looked back.
“It was a good match from start to finish for me and obviously getting the early lead helped,” he added.
“I was very happy with the way that I played. I felt there were some things I could have done better in the first round but my opponent, Kukushkin, was playing unbelievably aggressive and made it very difficult for me to impose myself in the match, whereas today I did that much better.
“I was able to come forward, I felt like I dictated more of the baseline rallies and had a good match.
“I’ve obviously had some tough matches with him in the past. I know when he’s on, he can make it extremely difficult.
“He can be pretty flashy and play two or three great games in a row and I wanted to make sure that I didn’t give him that opportunity. I’m pleased that I managed to stop him from gaining any momentum.
“I think in Grand Slams you have to try to conserve energy when you can really because the two weeks can be quite draining physically and mentally. It can pay off towards the end of the tournament.”
Murray will now play 25th seed Andreas Seppi, who lost in the final of the warm-up event in Halle to Roger Federer.
Seppi beat Britain’s Brydan Klein in the first round but needed five sets before finally seeing off 18-year-old Borna Coric 4-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1, 6-1.
“Seppi has had such good results this year. He made the final a couple of weeks ago in Halle, plays well on the grass. He won against Roger at the Australian Open and he is capable of playing some top tennis.”
