Wimbledon 2016: Andy Murray put in a brilliant performance against Tomas Berdych – it makes him favourite for the crown

THAT was a great display by Andy Murray.

Tomas Berdych came out really fast, really going after his shots, taking every ball very early and Andy had to weather that storm.

There’s no point going toe-to-toe with Tomas when he’s come that quickly out of the blocks.

So you might as well play savvy, put the ball in awkward places, defend like hell and wait for the errors.

In the first set Tomas had 13 unforced, Andy just one.

Once Andy nudged ahead you could just see Tomas doubting: “Is this sustainable if I keep playing this way?”

Quite early in the second set he started making a few errors which allowed Andy to get another break.

Tomas won 11 per cent of points on second serve in the second set. That’s the pressure Andy puts you under.

Tomas hits it big, but Andy pressed up on the baseline or inside it. Eventually that told.

To reach the first three Slam finals of the year — that level of consistency is astonishing. What would we do without him?

The pressure, the stress, he still finds a way to use it and to focus.

It’s a credit to him and to his team. They have to make sure the mind, the body, the tennis, the routines are all right.

So much goes into a day in the life of Andy Murray.

I’m sure Andy would not have thought ‘I’m likely to play Roger Federer.’

It’s not the way he thinks. He’s good at that, parking any storyboarding.

Keep putting yourself in finals, who knows who you will play?

Everyone likes a rivalry in tennis, like Andy against Novak Djokovic. But it’s nice to have a new face.

Milos Raonic sees himself as someone who can upset the apple cart. It’s different, because Andy is so used to facing Novak or Roger, but only in tactics. You don’t deviate from your way of preparing for finals.

I’m not sure it was such a shock that Milos has got through.

He has been playing great tennis and Federer had played only six tournaments before Wimbledon.

We saw in the fifth set the repercussions of the Cilic match and he took a bad fall. He didn’t really move well after that.

Andy will be the favourite — he won’t mind me saying that.

It’s where he would want to be, he’s worked hard for it. At the home of British tennis, a Brit in the final, we should expect a massive amount of support for Andy and that can only help.

But no one should think the final is a foregone conclusion

Milos’ serve is incredible, although there were moments in the fourth set when he looked uncomfortable.

He finds a way, though. Normally a bit of fatigue will set in, certainly in a fifth set, but he was still hitting 140mph plus serves.

Some of his second serves were huge — one at 123mph right into Federer’s body.

You saw what he did to Roger and what he did to Andy in Australia this year, two sets to one up in the semi-final.

He’s improved a lot. He’s the one guy outside the stranglehold that includes Wawrinka who people think can do this.

He has big weapons. But he hasn’t rested on having a huge serve and huge forehand.

He’s gone ahead and thought ‘I’m going to improve my backhand, my movement, I’m going to learn how to come to the net.’

Andy is going to have to play very, very well to win.