Andy Murray insists he will avoid watching Novak Djokovic’s matches unless he has to face the defending champion in the final.
While Djokovic was battling through the deciding set on Court One against Kevin Anderson, Murray was practising nearby and the Scot could hear the cheers emanating out from the Serb’s marathon contest.
– SW19 review: A look back at week one of Wimbledon 2015
– Wimbledon: Federer’s delivering some five-star service
The British No1 showed no inclination to follow the large scoreboard behind him, however, and he made no reaction either when Djokovic’s victory was sealed.
Murray has lost to the world No1 at both the Australian Open and the French Open this year, but they have been drawn in opposite halves of the draw at SW19 and cannot meet until the final.
“I will check the app and follow the live scores during the day but I don’t sit and watch a whole set; when I’m getting ready I’ll just catch a few points here and there,” Murray told the BBC.
“On Monday I only saw the end of the Berdych-Simon match, a few games of the Kyrgios match, a little bit of Roger and a couple of games of Novak.
“If I was to play Novak or Kevin Anderson in the next round, I might take a bit of a closer look, but it’s such a long way away from affecting me that at this stage I’m not following it closely.
“Maybe later on in the tournament, if I was to play against one of them, I might make more of an effort to see how it’s going.”
Murray will now play Canada’s Vasek Pospisil in the last eight and the match-up looks a kind one for the Briton, given it is the first time Pospisil has made it past the third round of a grand slam. Pospisil has also never beaten Murray in three previous meetings and he played two five-set matches on Monday, beating Viktor Troicki in the singles before later losing to Murray’s brother Jamie and John Peers in the doubles tournament.
“Pospisil had a great win over Viktor Troicki in singles earlier in the day, which meant he played 10 sets on Monday,” Murray said.
“I don’t know if that will affect him when we play but, selfishly, I hope so. Vasek has spent quite a lot of time on the court so far and that can be mentally draining. If he is tired I’ll obviously try to capitalise on that, but I won’t bank on it.”