ON a day when there were more falls than on Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday night, and the casualty count suggested the presence of a sniper on one of Wimbledon's many grassy knolls, Andy Murray strolled through to the second round unscathed and untroubled.

The Scot had Johnny Nelson, the former cruiserweight boxer in his corner, but needed no assistance to dismiss Lu Yen-Hsun, of Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 in 2hr 1min.

With Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Marin Cilic now out of his half of the draw, Murray will be expected to star in the main event on July 7 with Novak Djokovic facing him across the net. However, he was dismissive about how the scattering of top seeds to the wind affected his chances.

"Everybody was so obsessed with how the draw was before the tournament started," he said of the pre-tournament hype about the toughness of the draw in his half. "Now everybody wants to change their views on it because a few guys have lost. There's top players still left in the tournament, and there's a lot of young guys coming through, guys like [Ernests] Gulbis, [Jerzy] Janowicz. Those sort of players are starting to break through and play more consistently."

Murray's friend Nelson watched the Scot play a match so one-sided that the umpire could have been forgiven for stopping it. This is not to denigrate Lu, the world No.75, but he was out-manoeuvred and out-punched by the world No.2.

Tommy Robredo, of Spain, the world No.29, is next on the Murray schedule. "I'll just concentrate on my next match. I'm playing a tough player, a very experienced guy. I'll worry about that match," said Murray.

The Scot's focus was certainly complete yesterday. He was tentative, almost cautious when moving to the sides in the opening moments of his match, no doubt aware that this was the court where Victoria Azarenka, the No.2 seed, took her fall and subsequent knockout.

However, he became more assured almost immediately after saving three break points in the fifth game and then broke in the sixth to win the set. Murray broke at the first opportunity in the second and left the knockout blow late in the third set, finally taking a break point with Lu serving at 5-6. Murray already had scorned five break points in the set but this was not such a matter of carelessness but the result of Lu swinging almost recklessly, knowing that he could only disturb the world No.2 with shots of naked aggression.

Murray remained steady, however. After the last stand in the fifth game of the first set, he offered his conqueror in the Beijing Olympics five years ago no other opportunity on his serve. Indeed, in the second set, Murray lost only three points on his serve – and one of those was a double fault.

This unshakeable control gave Murray a stable platform for victory. He was impressive in three areas, in particular. The first was the accuracy and power of his forehand. The second was the impression he gave of a player who has such confidence in his game that he is content to be patient, particularly in the third set, and wait for his opponent to make mistakes under pressure. The third was the first- serve percentage of 63%.

He will face Robredo tomorrow and when the Spaniard came into the interview room he looked to be part of that battalion of walking wounded that shuffled around SW19 yesterday.

The Spaniard, though, is in robust health, dismissing the ice pack as a precaution and warning Murray that he faces an opponent in good form and with restored confidence.

The only condition that Robredo could be forgiven from suffering from is dizziness given the extreme swing in his fortunes. The Spaniard was No.5 in the world seven years ago but was in the high 400s last year after a series of injuries. He was also playing in Challeneger events recently so his exploits in the French Open and at Wimbledon must seem like a resurrection rather than merely a return to form and fitness.

His 7-6, 6-1, 7-6 defeat of Nicolas Mahut showed that Robredo, a sublime clay-court player, has adapted his game to grass and he had no fears about meeting Murray with whom he has a 2-2 record, though the Spaniard last beat the Scot in Metz in 2007.

"I've nothing to lose. I'm enjoying it. I'm playing great tennis. It's lovely to be in a grand slam playing one of the best players on tour," said Robredo. "I enjoyed winning today. So I'm going to play Andy in two days, so now I prefer to enjoy, to relax, to go have a great dinner because I deserve it, with a chocolate cake with ice cream. Then tomorrow is going to be a long day to think about Andy."

Robredo, too, made clear he was going to "go for it", adding: "Obviously, he's a great opponent, very tough to beat. I'm going to go into the court to try my best. If I have a chance, I will try to take it. If not, then I will congratulate him, best of luck to him, see you next time."

He feels he is "hitting the ball perfectly" and is "full of confidence", adding: "Physically, I'm perfect."

This almost placed him in a minority at SW19 and the Spaniard will need to be at his very best to trouble the Scot.

Murray, though, will know that there there is many a slip twixt championship cup and lip.