THE CENTRE court crowd craves drama in much the same manner as an expectant audience at a West End show, and on people's Saturday Andy Murray finally gave the people what they were waiting for.

The Scot's progress beyond first Fabrice Santoro then Xavier Malisse in the opening two rounds had been so safe and untroubled that visitors to the All England club yesterday seemed to relish an opportunity to wail and gnash their teeth a little bit. After breezing through the first set, the 21-year-old obliged them when he surrendered a promising position a break up to concede his first set of the Championships to Tommy Haas, the German former World No 2, via a tie-break. In the throes of a torrid third game of the third set - when Murray was fortunate to escape after facing another two break points - things briefly looking bleak for our intrepid hero.

But like every good production, the main protagonist refused to submit to the fates and overcame the conflict which threatened to engulf him. With fists pumping, he first held his serve then wielded his new-found momentum as a weapon against his opponent, and suddenly it was Haas who was feeling the heat again. The German surrendered his own serve in the very next game and the Scotsman was in no mood to let hold of the impetus for a second occasion.

He duly closed out the third set, and - with confidence restored - broke twice more in the fourth. Just when the audience thought it was safe to return to its default setting of comfortable appreciation, Murray squandered two match points before the standing ovation duly arrived. There should be even more for the masochists out there to appreciate when Murray takes on Richard Gasquet in the last 16 tomorrow, having equalled his best progress in this competition, when he eventually lost to Marcos Baghdatis at the same stage in 2006.

Last night Haas was impressed enough to consider Murray a contender, if - that is - he can keep the first serve in play. "He plays a type of game which is unpredictable at times," Haas said. "He does have a very good first serve which I think some people underrate. It's very fast and if he places it well it's very tough to get to. But I still think he needs to work on the second serve to be honest.

"A few points here and there didn't go my way, and that's why I lost today," he added. "He moves well and he is a counter puncher. If he is going to make shots like he did at the end of the fourth set he is going to be a contender, but it is very tough to ask for him to do that day in, day out. Obviously he's going to be tough to beat if he is playing the way he is, but he's still got a long way to go."

From the outset, the dramatis personae involved yesterday had suggested this would be Murray's sternest examination to date. The pair had met twice in successive years at the Indian Wells tournament in March, both matches going to three sets, with a different winner on each occasion. There was even a master-apprentice dynamic in operation as Murray, nine years the younger man, had practised together whilst training at Nick Bolletieri's tennis school. It was billed as the battle of the backhand.

Despite his defeat, at least the German had the consolation of actually making it onto centre court this year. Twelve months ago, having reached the fourth round here for the first time in his career, he was forced to pull out of his match against Roger Federer with an injured stomach muscle.

It is only one entry on a litany of injuries which have thwarted this former World No 2's progress at SW19, with other notable entries being the food poisoning which caused him to withdraw against Wayne Black and 2001, and the time he trod on a stray tennis ball, sustaining an ankle injury which gave Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic a walkover win in 2005. Worst of all has been a recurring shoulder injury, which has taken three operations to clear up, and limited his schedule to the extent that Wimbledon was his first Grand Slam of the season.

It may have been small beer compared to the afflictions of Haas, but a prologue to the action occurred a couple of hours prior to the start yesterday. A momentary injury scare engulfed Team Murray, when the Scot struck his left knee with his racket whilst hitting at the Aorangi practice courts.

An ice pack was applied to Murray's own troublesome joint as the minutes ticked down, and perhaps it helped him keeping his cool in the first set. The 21-year-old, the second youngest survivor in the men's draw behind Marin Cilic, has exuded calm at the eye of the storm all week, shouldering the inflated media expectations which surround a Brit at Wimbledon like a grizzled veteran.

Instead of panicking when he lost the first six points of the match, he simply reeled off the next four, and a running backhand down the line which laid the groundwork for his break of serve was something to behold. Even John McEnroe's much derided drop shot was functioning well. Haas, on the other hand, was struggling to make any inroads on the Murray serve.

It wasn't until Murray's first serve percentage started to drop off that Haas started to get opportunities. A break of serve forced a second set tie break, where a Murray double fault was implicated in levelling the score.

But instead of getting mad, Murray got back into his stride. From 2-2 onwards in the fourth set, Murray was back to his big-serving, drop-shotting self; Haas reduced to an anguished figure who received a warning for blasting a ball petulantly into the sky above SW19. It was the kind of slog which Sachin Tendulkar, sitting in the Royal Box, would never have been reduced to.