Andy Murray made light work of his battle of Britain with Englishman Liam Broady in his opening round match on Wimbledon’s Centre Court but he is wary of his next opponent’s current form on grass.

Veteran Taipei’s Yen-Hsun Lu is probably even less well known to British audiences than young Broady, having slipped slowly back down the rankings since reaching an end-of-season career high of 35 six years ago.

However Murray spoke respectfully about the 32-year-old as he demonstrated once again his thoroughness in preparing for every challenge.

“It’s a very tough match,” said the Scot.

“He’s played the three grass court Challengers (second tier events) in the build-up, he’s won tow of them and lost in the final of one.

“He’s won 10 or 11 matches in a row now coming in here. He’s made the quarters at thie event before and beat (Andy) Roddick once. He plays well on grass.

“It will be a really, really tough match and a good test for me early in the event. I’ll need to perform well in that one.”

In spite of Murray’s daughter Sophia Olivia making her first appearance at Wimbledon the former champion did not have the Centre Court crowd quite as fully behind him as is usually the case since he was up against an English opponent for the first time ever at Wimbledon.

The British love of the underdog also played in the 22-year-old wildcard’s favour but it took Murray only slightly longer than it had taken Iceland against Broady’s compatriots the previous night, for the Englishman to be knocked out of the tournament.

As is his style Murray offered words of encouragement for the youngster afterwards, saying: He moves well, he’s a good ball striker and I think in the last couple of years his technique has been a bit more consistent.”

However he could take considerable satisfaction from his own form.

“I hit the ball pretty clean today,” said Murray.

“I think offensively was good. I felt like I could have moved a little bit better. I didn’t defend as well as usual, but I served well too.

“That was pleasing. I got a lot of free points on my serve and served a pretty high percentage. Especially my first two sets I didn’t give him many chances on my serve and when I was in difficult situations I served well.”

While rain wiped out much of the day’s play Murray’s match was never under any threat because of the option of closing the Centre Court roof which meant all three matches due to be played on it were completed - with Serena Williams cruising through her opener, while 13th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova dumped former women’s world number one Caroline Wozniacki out of the event.

However Murray knows it is also important in terms of conserving energy for the tournament as a whole to get matches out of the way as quickly as possible.

“Any tournament it’s important. When you have the chance to win a match quickly do it,” he said.

“It’s not always that easy. Sometimes your opponents can play very well and sometimes you’re struggling a bit, but when you have the chance to finish them you have to try to be ruthless.

“I’m happy that I got done in three sets.”

Arch-rival Novak Djokovic’s coach Boris Becker made the point following their French Open final earlier this month that the difference in time spent on court ahead of that encounter had played in his man’s favour and Murray seemed to suggest he had learned from that experience.

“”The French Open was tough for me,” he said.

“I had a couple of long matches to start the tournament.”

However he noted that there is no strict formula to these things, since time spent on court can also be important in getting accustomed to surfaces and conditions.

“I have also done it a lot of time in (Grand) Slams where I have been quick in the first week, won the matches fairly quickly,” Murray observed.

“You just need to try to understand why that’s been the case in the past and hopefully I can have another good start here.”