NOTHING will be decided until next Sunday. But this might just have been Andy Murray's helicopter Saturday.

It had just gone 5pm when the Centre Court scoreboard confirmed the news that the Wimbledon title was changing direction and Novak Djokovic's stranglehold of the Grand Slams had been obliterated by Sam Querrey over on Court No 1. The first inklings of the news on smartfones and elsewhere had caused an excited hubbub to spread around this venue but as the World No 2 sat down at the change of ends leading Australia's John Millman by a 6-3, 5-4 scoreline, the arena broke into lusty, full-blown celebrations.

The logical conclusion was that the 29-year-old, the highest seed remaining into the second week, was now a sure thing to claim his second Wimbledon title. This, as the Scot knows only too well, is a dangerous conclusion to draw. As if to remind everyone, apparently unsettled by the news, he promptly found himself unable to serve out for the second set.

It is true, of course, to state that the Scot's 11-year relationship with this tournament has now entered a new phase. While the likes of Roger Federer have as much reason to feel they will be the beneficiaries of Djokovic's demise as he is, three of the world's top five players are now out or absent and it falls to Murray to carry the frontrunner's curse.

"Well, I mean, obviously if you see a result or hear the fans, then you think about it," admitted Murray. "That's natural. That's what everyone does. You can't just not see what's going on. So you think about it. But it wasn't something that was going through my mind for more than 10, 15 seconds whilst I was sitting at a change of ends. Then you get on with it. Like I said, what happened to Novak is irrelevant to me. It's today's match. I need to win my match today, and I did a good job of that."

Unsettling or not, typically it took him only a matter of minutes to re-set his focus for this challenge, re-asserting his supremacy over the Australian in a mammoth game to claim his fifth break point for a 6-5 lead then serving it out to take a two-set lead. His Aussie opponent, a man who admitted to feeling goosebumps when hearing the strains of Loch Lomond during last September's Davis Cup tie in Glasgow, fell to earth with a bump as he lost his serve again in the opening game of the third set. He takes the low road out of here while Andy was taking the high road into the second week without dropping a single set.

Events over on Court No 1 weren't the only distraction which Murray had to cope with yesterday. The Scot also had numerous rain delays to deal with, the match starting under clear London skies, but twice being interrupted by showers, before the All England Club finally took the fairly obvious decision to complete it under the roof.

The Scot made light of the situation afterwards. "No, I'm not really surprised [it didn't start under the roof] because it's an outdoor tournament, so they need to try to play the matches outdoors," he said. "But obviously we went out the first time, then came back for a couple points. So it's a little bit frustrating. Makes it a bit sort of stop?starty. We obviously didn't get a warmup after that. But, I mean, it wasn't too bad. It's been a lot worse for the other players."

Played on Sportsman's Saturday at Wimbledon, the Royal Box for the day included his mum Judy, Sir Chris Hoy, boxer Carl Froch and members of England's 1966 World Cup winning team, although noticeably there were no representatives of England's current golden generation it was David 'golden balls' Beckham who got the biggest cheer of all. Leon Smith, Jamie Murray and the remainder of Great Britain's Davis Cup team were afforded a standing ovation as they paraded the trophy around Centre Court beforehand, although in fact it was a replica as the real one resides in a security lock-up at an unspecified London location.

Another reason for the tardy start was the strange non-appearance of John Millman. The 27-year-old native of Brisbane, a medical miracle man who has rebuilt his career after sustaining a torn labrum in his shoulder socket, apparently was nowhere to be found when his name was called in the locker room. He had met Murray just once before, on his home terrain of Brisbane, but it was he who was behind enemy lines here as he took on the Scot on his home turf. Murray, by contrast, was present immediately, racing into an early lead as he fired in two aces in the opening game then sent in a trademark forehand lob to break the Millman serve at the first time of asking.

A minor Murray blip allowed Millman to break back courtesy of an errant Scottish backhand into the net at break point down but the Australian couldn't consolidate his position. Some back court defending which wouldn't have looked out of place in table tennis did the trick as Millman fluffed his overhead and Murray re-established an advantage which he rarely seriously looked like letting go of. Millman has a habit of handing out complimentary drinks from the fridge to his fans after matches but the drinks might just have been on Sam Querrey last night for blowing this year's Wimbledon wide open.