Murray: I ate pizza before taking on the world’s best

Changed days for world no 1 as he reflects on his first trip to Wimbledon in 2005

Andy Murray was going through his usual meticulous preparations yesterday for his quarter-final against Sam Querrey – a far cry from his first trip to Wimbledon.

The Scot is through to the last eight for the 10th consecutive year having made his debut in 2005, when he catapulted himself into the nation’s consciousness by reaching the third round.

Writing in his BBC column, Murray said: “Of course I knew it was important but in truth I was not really aware of how big a deal Wimbledon was, and how much focus there was on this event.

“And, yes, I was enjoying pizza for dinner before facing some of the best players in the world.

“I was staying in the basement of a house in Wimbledon village with my mum, my brother, and (now wife) Kim stayed there a little bit.

“We just walked down the hill to the All England Club most of the time. I do remember fairly clearly that I didn’t eat well. With things like diet, we just didn’t know any better and I was very naive.”

These days every calorie Murray consumes is carefully planned as part of a regime to ensure the world No 1 is in the best possible shape for each match.

He has been managing a hip injury all tournament but has only dropped one set sofarandhasseenthebignamesfalloutof his path.

Murray might have faced Nick Kyrgios, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal in the second week, but instead his route to the final comprises Benoit Paire, Querrey and either Marin Cilic or Gilles Muller.

Having comfortably beaten the unpredictable Paire, Murray now takes on American Querrey, a big server who stunnedNovakDjokovicinthethirdround 12 months ago.

Nadal’s loss to Muller, meanwhile, meansreachingthelastfourwouldensure Murray holds on to the world number one ranking beyond Wimbledon.

The defending champion said: “Sam obviously likes the conditions here. He played really well last year. He’s had some good wins here, some tight matches as well. He’ll be confident going in.

“He’s obviously got a big serve, goes for hisshots,averyaggressiveplayer.(Against Paire), I maybe played one or two service games in the first set that weren’t the best. Against him, you can’t really afford that.

“I’ll need to make sure I’m serving well and not letting him dictate too much.”

Murray and Querrey have played eight times before, with the Scot winning seven of them, including in the third round of the Australian Open in January.

Querrey, who has come through back-to-back five-setters against JoWilfried Tsonga and Kevin Anderson, knows exactly what to expect and what he needs to do if he is to create another big Wimbledon shock.

“I’m just hoping I’m going to have a moment out there on Wednesday where I play great and play aggressive,” he said.

Asked if Murray was seen as more vulnerable in the locker room after his recent hip injury, Querrey said: “Maybe slightly. But a lot of times those shock losses seem to come early in events.

“He’s played four matches now. I’m going to assume he’s feeling good, feeling confident, ready to go.

“He’s the guy over here. If a bee stings him, everybody is going to know about it. I think his hip was probably bugging him early, but he seems to be fine now.”