MUCH has been made of Andy Murray’s septuagenarian shuffle at this year’s Wimbledon but there might just have been an extra spring in his step as he practised at Aorangi yesterday morning. The Scot is famously scathing of those who look through a 128-man draw and meticulously chart his presumed path to the final and it is precisely because of occasions like this - where the top half of the draw has disintegrated as quickly as the grass around the Centre Court baseline.

But he would only be human if his mind started to wander a little after Rafa Nadal’s thrilling five-set defeat to Gilles Muller on Court No 1 on Monday evening, a result which suggests the stars could be aligning in his favour yet again. More people than ever now blithely assume that he will arrive at least at his fourth SW19 showpiece on Sunday afternoon and why not? Instead of having to blast his way past Stan Wawrinka and Nadal to reach the final, now he must only disarm Sam Querrey - against whom he has a 7-1 winning record - then dispose of either Muller of Marin Cilic - two men who his personal head-to-heads stand at 6-0 and 12-3. As dangerous as particularly the Croat can be, some would say he could hardly have hand-picked his opponents much better.

It is, of course, only understandable if players are wary of focusing unduly on what misfortunes may befall others in the draw. Their success or failure ultimately is on their own racket and like runners up in the FA Cup final, no-one tends to remember who fell by the wayside when and to whom. But in truth all tennis players are partially at the mercy of what Harold MacMillan once apparently called ‘events, dear boy, events’. It is how they adapt to the shifting circumstances around them which separates the men from the boys.

In the mature phase of his career, Murray has proved particularly adept at this. At the US Open in 2012, for instance, the five-year anniversary of which ticks round this September, few talk now about the fact Roger Federer was shocked in four sets at the quarter final stage to Tomas Berdych or that Murray made the most of gale force winds to steal a valuable day’s advantage on final opponent Novak Djokovic. You could say likewise of the Scot’s maiden Wimbledon win, when his fellow bottom half big guns Nadal and Federer fell in the first and second rounds respectively to Steve Darcis and Sergei Stakhovsky, leaving Lukasz Kubot and Jerzy Janowicz in a business end battle for the dubious privilege of taking on the Scot in the semi-final.

And perhaps the best example of all was only 12 months ago, when the previously imperious Djokovic’s winning run at all four Grand Slams was brought to an end in four sets by none other than Querrey, the Scot hearing the news with the rest of the world as he sat on Centre Court at a changeover. As it turned out, ‘all’ he had to do to claim his second SW19 title was get the better of the tournament’s 15th, 12th, 10th and 6th seeds, but his immediate reaction to Djokovic’s defeat was quite simple. “I need to reach the final for that result to have any bearing whatsoever on my performance,” he said.

Substitute the word final for semi final and again that is where Murray finds himself as Nadal packs his bags for Mallorca. It is all completely irrelevant unless he can take care of business against Querrey on Centre Court today.

If the Scot seems to delight in playing the big-serving monsters of the men’s tour - his returns peppering their shoelaces and his passing shots and lobs driving them to distraction - he denies that actually is the case. “No, not really - he [Querrey] has a tough style to play against,” said Murray. “He serves big, he goes for his shots and he’s not an easy guy to come up against. He had a big win against Novak here last year and he’s beaten [Jo-Wilfried] Tsonga here too. He’s a great grass court player but I’ve had good success against him.”

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the 30-year-old feels he does better against opponents like these the less time he has to think about his response. “I’ve been asked when you’re playing, what you’re thinking, like in the middle of a rally,” he said. “But actually I feel like I play my best when I’m not thinking. I’ve told many coaches that. I do think that’s the case. You’re relying on instinct. That’s why practice and repetition is extremely important, so when you’re out there in a tight moment, you don’t want to be over-analysing, thinking too much. If you are, that’s when things start to go wrong.”

Mind you, it takes all sorts in tennis, as Murray proved last night when he said that even his wife Kim tends to prefer watching shorter shot-makers than 6ft3in juggernauts like him. “Not everyone who watches tennis loves watching Federer,” said Murray. “He’s got a massive amount of fans but some people prefer watching Rafa. There will be people in this country who don’t like watching me, who don’t like my personality or don’t enjoy my style of play, whatever it is. That’s why it is healthier if there are three or four players - men, women, left handers, right handers, tall players. It makes it more fun because everyone likes different things. Like my wife for example. She likes watching players who are small and aren’t as strong. She likes watching Gilles Simon, Dominika Cibulková and players like that.”