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Grass blog

Andy -

Wimbledon is always the most important tournament of the season for me, so to reach the second week for a fifth year running feels pretty special.

But to do it with victory over Marcos Baghdatis under the Centre Court roof at gone 11 o’clock at night… that will certainly live long in the memory.

I’ve played in some unbelievable atmospheres – Stanislas Wawrinka here in 2009, Richard Gasquet at the French Open the following year, Novak Djokovic in Australia in January – and this is right up with the best of them. It was absolutely electric out there.

When I fought back from a break down to win the third set, you could see how much it meant to me and I was loving the crowd reaction, for a minute I thought I was at a football match.

That was a huge, pivotal moment in the match and all my emotions came out. From then on I was a little more comfortable and the feeling at the end was more satisfaction than relief.

When the roof comes on everyone gets really excited and it’s great because all the noise stays in the stadium. A lot of people had probably had a couple of drinks and got into it even more. We obviously want dry weather because Wimbledon is an outdoor event, but this was definitely fun.

Two long matches before ours meant we didn’t get on court until after 7pm and, having practised a 1pm, there was a long of waiting around.

I spent that time watching a bit of the tennis, chatting to other guys, sleeping and playing on the golf putting machine. My coach Ivan Lendl is a brilliant player so I wouldn’t stand a chance against him in a proper round, but maybe I’ll challenge him to a game of crazy golf.

It was good to eventually get started but we had to come off at around 9pm for the roof to be shut, which meant another spell in the locker room.

This time I had a shower, changed and got my knee taped. It was a little sore after a couple of falls and I’ve got some bumps and bruises, but nothing to worry about.

After the match I jumped straight in the ice bath, drank lots of fluids and ate some pasta and sushi. I had a massage from my physio while doing my media interviews, which must be first!

Thankfully Sunday is a day off for everyone and it was nice to stay in bed a bit longer than usual. I had some breakfast before heading in for a short practice session.

But I’ll spend far more time with my physio than I will on court. I reckon we’ll do an hour-and-a-half or two of treatment to make sure I’m in the best possible shape come Monday.

We’ll then sit down as a team and discuss the tactics to employ against Marin Cilic, who I’ve beaten in five of our six previous meetings but lost to at the Australian Open two years ago.

If I play like I did the first couple of sets against Baghdatis, winning the tournament is going to be tough. I need to learn from the things I didn’t do so well and what turned it around for me.

One thing that definitely helped was everyone’s support; the fans and my team in the stands. I saw my mum beforehand because she and my grandma had been invited to the Royal Box.

They definitely enjoyed the experience and it turned out to be a pretty good day all round, roll on Monday.

Andy was talking to the BBC