Iceman Murray playing it cool

ANDY MURRAY’S bedtime routine this week involves jumping in a bath full of ice before trying to sleep.

The treatment is nothing new but its frequency has been stepped up as the world no 1 prepares to be one half of a rare British double bill on Centre Court today alongside Jo Konta in the second round.

Murray will take on the dreadlocked dustin Brown, trying to avoid the same fate the German of Jamaican heritage inflicted on rafael nadal two years ago — a shock defeat at the same stage in the same arena.

Plunging into the ice a few extra times is a consequence of Murray’s sore hip, though he looked relatively untroubled in dropping only seven games in his opening match.

Brown’s appearance may be exotic for tennis but Murray rejects lazy cliches about a player who partially learned the game in the holiday resorts around Montego Bay.

As he pointed out, today’s opponent is deadly serious in his approach to the game, even if he plays in an unorthodox manner that features using the whole court and stealing into the net.

‘dustin comes out with incredible shots and is very entertaining to watch and is pretty “out there” on the court,’ said Murray. ‘you might think that because of the way he plays on court, maybe he is the same away from it. But away from it he is a very quiet, respectful and humble guy. He is very different from how he plays. We get on well and he is a nice guy.

‘We were on the same team at the IPTL (tennis’s answer to cricket’s Indian Premier League) when I played in dubai. We spent a bit of time together there and had a bit of a group chat with all the players on the team. We all were basically writing to each other after that because everybody got on well.’

regardless of that, or the challenges Brown poses, the gap of 96 places in the rankings between them ought to preclude a repeat of 2015, when nadal was constantly dragged to the net. As Murray showed in his first round against Alexander Bublik, he is perfectly capable of toying with opponents himself if needs be.

It is a measure of Konta’s rise that she will be trying to reach the third round here for the first time.

And she will be attempting to do so against donna Vekic, the Croat who spent so many of her formative years based in Middlesex that she once flirted with the idea of switching her allegiance to the UK.

Vekic — the girlfriend of day one’s biggest upset victim, Stan Wawrinka — was for several seasons based out of northwood and has had two spells with an English coach in david Felgate. Hence there is plenty of Home Counties in her accent. Vekic has already beaten Konta once on grass this year, in the final of the nottingham Open two-and-a-half weeks ago. She hopes the scale of the occasion may again bring the best from her and bring pressure to bear on Konta’s sometimes fraying nerves when they meet in the first match on Centre Court today.

‘I think pressure would have always been on her because she is better ranked, so everyone was expecting her to win,’ said Vekic of the nottingham match. ‘I was more nervous at the beginning because I was struggling a little bit and she won the first set pretty easily, so I was just trying to stay in there and turn it around and I managed it.

‘Playing on Centre Court is a dream come true. I played last year on Court no 1 and it was absolutely amazing. I think the crowd here is pretty fair, so I expect some support. I enjoy playing on big courts. Wimbledon is very special and I played very well against Venus on Court no 1 last year.

‘I would still prefer to be the top10 player and not the underdog. I don’t think it has anything to do with anything. I am not going to have no pressure, because I want to win. For me there is as much at stake as there is for her.’