• Wimbledon: What They Said

British hopes ignore the pressure to progress

ESPN staff
June 28, 2013
Laura Robson set the tone for a successful day for British players © Getty Images
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Andy Murray was delighted with his form in defeating Tommy Robredo in three sets on Friday evening, although he believes he still has some areas to improve upon.

"I think he started to feel more comfortable," Murray said, when asked about the tight latter stages of the match. "I played my best match of the tournament so far today.

"I served well the first couple of matches but maybe did not hit the ball quite as well as I would have liked.

"Playing under the roof, it's easier to time the ball. I would rather there was good weather and we'd play outdoors without the roof."

The Brit faces huge expectations heading into the second week, after the early exits of the two highest seeds on his side of the draw - Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal.

"There's a lot more pressure on me now with them being out," he noted. "I don't read the papers and stuff, but they have papers in the locker rooms so you see some of the headlines and it's not that helpful. You need to be professional and not let that stuff bother you."

Earlier, Laura Robson reached the last-32 for the first time ever with a comfortable victory over Mariana Duque-Marino - although afterwards all the press wanted to talk about was a tweet of encouragement she received from One Direction's Harry Styles. She said:

"Three of One Direction tweeted me! Zayn and Louis were the only ones that didn't! I didn't follow who it was that tweeted me yesterday. I haven't been going on Twitter but I actually got an email saying '[Harry Styles] followed you and messaged you'. But I then looked in my replies [from One Direction fans] and it was just like thousands of these messages saying 'Who is she?'

"I was wetting myself because it was so funny. I think I've gained 20,000 followers and they have no idea who I am."

On the match itself, she added: ""It's a big win for me. Any match on Centre Court is a big one and it was a great atmosphere out there. I was kind of feeling nervous, but luckily I've played on Centre a couple of times before. I'm really excited. I'm going to play doubles this afternoon, if it stops raining, and get ready for tomorrow."

Jerzy Janowicz was second on Centre Court and appeared to like the stage, beating Nicolas Almagro in three sets to have some pencilling him in as a potential semi-final opponent for Murray. He said. "This is my best result in a grand slam. This was the first time I played at Centre Court so I'm so happy.

"The delayed start affected me, I was broken early in the first set. I was nervous, but I was able to come back. Right now I'm playing really good tennis and I'm really confident."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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