SOMEWHERE high in the rafters in the most douce arena in the sporting world, a wean last night cried out in gleefully guttural tones: "Gaun yirsel, Andy!"

It was 6.29pm in the heart of Wimbledon and one is grateful to a precocious compatriot for such a succinct appraisal of Andrew Barron Murray, a Caledonian tennis player of increasing note. Moments later the world No.2 went on to take the first set in a highly impressive 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Tommy Robredo in two hours one minute under the roof of Centre Court.

Murray at first sparkled under the lights and then produced a sterling display of top-class serving to send the 31-year-old Spaniard to defeat and surely close to despair. Injury once forced Robredo to slip to No. 471 in the world and he must have felt all of that facing the Scot last night.

The Spaniard was destroyed in the first set by a display of supreme ball-striking by Murray, who at one point threatened to run away with the set and, indeed, match. A spell of four consecutive games produced gasps of delight and then that precise verdict from the Scottish child.

Murray broke in the first game of the second set, then took the only break point offered in the third to finish a match of high quality in imperious style. The Caledonian imperative to be negative falters in the face of such a performance.

Yes, Murray did drop a service game in the first. Yes, he sclaffed two forehands in the second. And yes, Robredo had conspicuous success on the 26-year-old's second serve. However, to use the vernacular of the wean, Murray gave Robredo a veritable doing. Some of the shots on the backhand were breathtaking and the Scot also manoeuvred himself into positions with deft footwork to make his forehand a formidable weapon.

In a week when top players departed Wimbledon with undue haste, Murray reinforced his credentials as a potential winner of the tournament with a display of technical brilliance and solid maturity.

The Scot, for all his protestations about increasing pressure, is now a serial finalist. He has contested the last match in the past three grand slams he has played, losing to Roger Federer at Wimbledon and Novak Djokovic in Australia and beating the Serb in New York. He has also, almost incidentally, beaten Djokovic and Federer to win Olympic gold.

Murray, then, is a clear and present danger to anyone's pretensions to winning Wimbledon. He talks convincingly of having pre-match nerves but these are of the inspirational variety. The fight or flight response caused by a spurt of adrenaline seems to make him both fleet of foot and strong of will.

However, the most impressive facet of Murray at Wimbledon this year is his patience. Like Yen-Hsun Lu in the second round, Robredo played extremely well in the third set. His serve was powerful and accurate and he battled for every point, giving no indication of any capitulation. Murray was not rash in the face of this resilience and kept his serve in fully functioning order, losing only five points on it in six games in that final act. He was also brutally ruthless in taking the break point offered to him.

There is a calmness to Murray 2013 that has not been achieved by any lessening of his will to win or his aggression when faced with the opportunity to hit a winner.

Robredo, a player of substantial gifts who was ranked No.5 in the world seven years ago, will be written down in the face of this overwhelming defeat as a clay-court specialist who was cruelly found out on the Wimbledon grass. This assertion is undermined by Robredo's thrashing of Nicholas Mahut, a genuine performer on the surface, in the previous round.

This, of course, represents needless reflection. It is enough to say that Murray will now play in the fourth round on Monday, an eventuality denied Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and many others.

The Scot refuses to look further than a meeting with either Mikhail Youzhny of Russia or Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the fourth round. Of Youzhny, the 30-year-old world No.26, he said: "He's a very good grass-court player. He was in the final in Halle and had a very tight match with Roger [Federer] there. He's been in the second week numerous times. He likes the courts. He's a very talented guy."

The verdict on Troicki, the 27-year-old world No. 44, was more upbeat. "I have had some good matches with him in the past. I have played well against him. I know his game well. He's extremely quick around the court," he said. The Serb, who has changed coaches, was as high as No.12 in the rankings two years ago.

Murray will now take the opportunity of watching this match today but must do so without any trepidation. His eyes may not gaze beyond this but others are allowed to speculate on the path to a potential meeting with Novak Djokovic a week tomorrow. It is highly probable he will have to beat either Juan Monaco (world No.20) or Ernests Gulbis (world No.39), and then Jerzy Janowicz, the Polish world No.22, to make the final.

Janowicz, who defeated Murray in the Paris Masters last year, is an undeniable threat but he, too, is reluctant to look beyond Monday. "I don't like to think like this," he said when informed the road to the semi-final was not impassable. "Right now I have made the best result in my career in a grand Slam. Jurgen Melzer is waiting for me in next match. I'm thinking only about this."

This is also the Murray way. Fit the blinkers, take personal responsibility and look to progress. As that wean noted, it is the "gaun yirsel" approach to grand slams.