One of the great joys of doubles is witnessing a lethally timed interception and having produced a few on court yesterday, Bruno Soares delivered an even better example in the Wimbledon interview room.

After a testing first set against Czech pair Roman Jebavy and Jiri Vesely which was decided in a tie break, he and Jamie Murray had come smoothly through their men’s doubles opening round 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 and the Scot was dealing clinically with everything being put to them afterwards when, having been quietly passive , the Brazilian leapt into action.

Borrowing from another sport Murray was playing a solid straight bat to a question about whether the winners of half of last year’s Grand Slams, former world number one pairing and current Wimbledon third seeds should have been asked to play on a court with one of the smallest spectator capacities in the All England Club, but Soares felt the need to intervene.

“I was very surprised. Jamie’s not,” he said.

“There’s no need to say more.”

But he did say more in making it clear that his observation was not a case of making a prima donna style demand to be on a show court and was instead prompted by a combination of dealing with practicalities and showing a home favourite the respect he deserved in allowing as many people as possible to watch him play.

“I think (courts) 14 to 17 are fine, at least where people can see the courts and all the match. Court five literally fits 50 people,” Soares noted

“It’s difficult for our friends and family to see, imagine what it’s like for the rest of the people.

“I just think because it’s Jamie… he’s not going to say that, but for what he brings to British tennis playing at Wimbledon, he’s a member here, I don’t think it’s nice.”

Murray confined himself to admitting he would prefer to play on bigger courts, but was prepared to elaborate on some comments made on Twitter the previous day, when he suggested that ‘Hawkeye’ replay facilities should be available on every court at Grand Slam tournaments.

“I know it’s not always possible with the lay-out of certain courts, but I think there should be more than they have, but that’s not the way they go for it right now,” he observed.

“We hope it gets better and we hope every court has Hawkeye because it’s not fair that the top players are protected because they’re playing on the big courts and we’re out in the bushes and stuff happens and we can’t do anything about it.”

The expectation must be that they will play any further matches on the better appointed courts as, a decade after becoming a Wimbledon champion when he won the mixed doubles title with Jelena Jankovic, Murray pursues the title he has said he most covets.

“It’s a home Grand Slam. Not so many players get that opportunity so that’s obviously huge,” he said.

There was, meanwhile, a victory for another Scot on the same court when, given a wildcard in the ladies doubles, Jocelyn Rae and partner Laura Robson followed them on and claimed a surprise 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over 11th seeds Raquel Atawo and Jelena Ostapenko, last month’s beaten French Open finalist.