IT'S an unloved and unlovely venue, No 1 Court.

Not quite as disliked by the leading players as the old No 2 Court, the Graveyard of Champions as it was known, but still a disconcerting break in routine.

It's smaller, tighter, and further from the dressing-rooms. Playing there feels like a chore, an obligation that even the biggest names have to go through from time to time, in part to allow others their turn on Centre Court, but also to give people an incentive to keep buying tickets and debentures for it.

In short, it's an uncomfortable experience for all concerned - except, it seems, for Andy Murray. This year's No 3 seed has never lost a match on No 1, and that record never remotely looked like changing from the very first exchanges of his second-round match against Robin Haase.

Perhaps the weather helped. A morning shower had cleared the air a bit, and the atmosphere was far fresher, and the temperature about ten degrees cooler, than the day before. In those circumstances, Murray did not have to think about conserving his energies. He was simply able to focus on getting the job done as quickly as possible.

An easygoing Dutchman - have you ever met an angst-ridden one? - Haase is known for his friendly interaction with the crowd, and has even conducted chanting from the sidelines in Davis Cup matches. At his best, the timing and power of his groundstrokes are a pleasure to watch. But he was nowhere close to his best in this match.

In fact, Murray soon had Haase's gaase at a peepe. An early break of serve helped the former champion ease into his game, and for much of the first two sets the contest was so one-sided that Murray would have been able to take an easygoing approach to the game himself.

Instead, he was in unforgiving mood, ramming home his advantage with a relentless efficiency. And when Murray did commit the odd error, such as a double fault in the opening game in the second set that took the score to deuce and so gave his opponent a sliver of a glimpse of a chance of a break, Haase soon did the same thing.

In this case, he threw in a double fault in the very next game, and paid the price for it, being broken a couple of points later. It was almost as if Haase were saying 'Anything you can do, I can do worse'.

That was what made this performance by Murray so impressive. Such was his domination, he could have been forgiven for slacking off, or at least allowing his concentration to dip a little, as he did in the first round against Mikhail Kukushkin. Instead, he ploughed on all the way to the end of one of the simplest matches he has played here. Haase played well below his world ranking of 78 throughout the first two sets, both of which he lost 6-1, and although he offered more resistance in the third, he still lost that 6-4 and the match was over in under an hour and a half.

One similarity with that earlier match on Centre Court against Kukushkin was the routine manner in which the home crowd treat performances by the British No 1. In the old days of Tim Henman's tortuous struggles or even Murray's first few campaigns, they would be treated, if that is the right word, to a rollercoaster ride. Now they get a test drive on a flat track in a milk float.

That expectation of straightforward success is reflected in the atmosphere around court, at least thus far in the Scot's campaign to regain the title he claimed two years ago. There is little or no partisan mood among the crowd. No Saltires or Union Jacks have been brandished on either court, although this will surely change in Murray's next match or two.

Those will almost certainly be played on Centre Court, a venue which has always been far more conducive to a real gladiatorial atmosphere than No 1. Still, if he had to play one match this year on No 1, this was the one to do. No 1 may not offer a British player real support against his opponent, but Murray did not need that support in any case. He hardly had an opponent to play against.