London 2012 Olympics: Andy Murray and Laura Robson get shot at mixed doubles

Yet yesterday, Murray and Laura Robson were announced as Britain’s sole representatives in the mixed competition and, once the draw was made, they looked to be in with a  decent shout of a medal of some  description. With only 16 teams in the draw, a gold medal needs only four wins with a silver or a bronze taking just three. And the British pair have a perfectly winnable first round match against Radek Stepanek and Lucie  Hradecka.

It will be a tough workload for the Scot presuming he continues in his current form in the singles. The weather forecast is unsettled for the rest of the week so he may find himself hanging around late into the evening waiting to complete his mixed doubles duties after the singles have finished for the day, but, as he pointed out, chances like these do not come around every day.

“I’d spoken to the guys about it before the tournament,” Murray said. “I was planning on playing mixed. Obviously, it would have been a lot of tennis to play. But like I’m sure a lot of the athletes are saying, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to try to win a medal at your home Games. I wanted to give myself the best chance at that. That was why I wanted to play mixed.”

Murray has admitted in the past that he finds mixed doubles a challenge. The different dynamic – trying to flatten the women on the other side of the net – takes some getting used to and save for three mixed doubles matches at Wimbledon in 2005 and 2006 (won one, lost two), he has avoided the event.

He did play twice at the Hopman Cup in Perth in 2010 and 2011, both times with Robson, but that is only an exhibition event held at the start of the season. The idea there is merely to get time on court after the Christmas break; this will be very different.

There is also the small matter of explaining the decision to his brother, Jamie. After all, Jamie is the only grand slam champion in the family after he won the mixed title with Jelena Jankovic in 2007 and went on to reach the US Open final with Liezel Huber the following year.

“It was a hard decision, but I listened to what the coaches on the team had to say,” Murray  explained. “The decision was made because that’s what we felt was the best one to try and win a medal. We don’t know whether it’s the right decision or not because I haven’t played mixed doubles with any of the other girls. Heather Watson has played some very good doubles this year, is our No 1 player as well. So it’s obviously tough for her. But tough decisions have to be made sometimes. That was the one that was taken.”

Back at his day job, Murray looked is supreme form as he crushed Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 6-4 in the swiftest of 61 minutes. Admittedly, the Finn’s form ranged from hopeless to helpless with a brief spell of deeply mediocre in the second set, but Murray was still serving impressively and pounding his groundstrokes with crushing authority. All in all, it was a perfect way to reach the third round: no energy wasted, no nerves frazzled and back home in double-quick time.

He might be a little busier today against Marcos Baghdatis, the 6-4, 6-4 conqueror of Richard Gasquet. The Cypriot played well, but then again, he lost to Murray on Centre Court a little under five weeks ago. That, too was a third round and Murray set off from there to reach the final.

Robson needed to play very, very well if she was to stand a chance of beating Maria Sharapova and, for the most part, she did just that, but in the end it still was not enough – she was beaten 7-6, 6-3.

Heather Watson broke down in tears after defeat by another Russian Maria – Kirilenko – in the second round. Watson put up a tough fight but could not break the winning form of 14th seed Kirilenko, and was ground down 6-3, 6-2 by the Wimbledon quarter-finalist.

She said: “It was tough today. Maria played really well. She does not give anything away. She definitely made me play the extra ball. I wasn’t aggressive and consistent enough.”

Playing in her first Olympics, Watson was visibly disappointed that her journey had come to an end. She said: “It hurts that I have lost because it is my first Olympics and it only comes around once.”