They came into the interview room two by two — Rafael Nadal and Rainer Schüttler, Feliciano López and Marat Safin — and as these winners told their joyous stories they squinted their eyes at the scoreboard in the corner to see who was going to emerge from the last, most extraordinary of the Wimbledon fourth-round matches. The answer, as last orders were called in the village, was a splendid grand-slam hope from Scotland. This boy Andy Murray is going to be very big one day.

Actually, he is rather big now, as his demonstration of biceps power at the end of what would have been the final game of the day, whichever way it went, aptly showed. There have been many outrageous pieces of grand theatre played out on this cherished piece of pasture down the years, but this by the British No 1, against Richard Gasquet, a talented but ultimately timorous Frenchman, takes the Scottish shortbread.

Tomorrow, Murray will play a chap with pretty big biceps himself, Nadal, the No 2 seed from Spain, but that we should consider later. For now, simply put your hands together for a 21-year-old who has reached the last eight of a grand-slam tournament for the first time, and not just any old grand slam but one in which British hopes have been carried in recent years on a whim, a prayer and a hope that Tim Henman would overcome insurmountable odds. Poor Henman did not have these muscles.

When Henman flexed his arms it was done in the hope that no one would take offence, a quiet, secret shake of the fist that seemed so out of character. Murray’s full-throated, roaring tennis, his winding-up of the crowd, his physical pumps and intimidating gestures do not sit well with those who like a touch of innocence in their sporting heroes. That is not Murray — never was, never will be — and we had better get accustomed to it.

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For the first time, Murray looked like a man of destiny

Simon Barnes

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And the boy has heart, you have to give him that. His 5-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Gasquet — the Frenchman kept using the word “bizarre” afterwards — improved his five-set winning record to 7-4 and it is probable that, if he wants to conquer Nadal, the French Open and Artois Championships winner, he will have to go one five-set stride farther. Nadal, who required treatment on a sharp pain behind his right knee in the second game of his match against Mikhail Youzhny, cantered to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 win.

Murray is in the form and feeling of his life. He said on Saturday that playing tennis is the only thing he has ever done well and if he was being a touch understated, the comment went to the heart of why he is such an astonishing competitor. Gasquet thought he had him. He served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, only to have his serve broken to love and his confidence shattered in the process.

By the end of the fifth set he was willing what was left of the light to fade and, had Murray stumbled when serving for the match, the players would have been sent back to the locker-room to complete proceedings this afternoon. Murray knew that, completing the task with the air of a man who must not fail. “It’s the best I’ve ever felt on a tennis court,” he said, and a few of us might suggest that it is the best we have felt for many a year, too.

Every once in a while something comes along that interrupts the beauty of everyday life and what had been taken for granted is to be cherished. One recalls shaking Mario Ancic’s hand at Wimbledon last September during the Davis Cup World Group qualifier between Great Britain and Croatia and saying how glad I was to see him. Never more so.

Six months earlier it was all he could do to climb out of bed because Ancic was the victim of a bout of glandular fever so virulent that he wondered if he would play professionally again. To see him reach the quarter-finals was a fillip, and that is not meant as any disrespect to Fernando Verdasco, his Spanish opponent, who won the first two sets, led the fourth 4-2 and 30-0. “I wanted to be back in this holy place,” he said. And, holy of holies, he is in the thick of the tournament to such an extent he will play Roger Federer tomorrow — and it does not get much thicker than that.