Awesome Andy shows Gulbis what happens when you call him a cheat..you get destroyed.

Byline: OLIVER HOLT

HERE'S a flavour of how well Andy Murray played last night.

Here's how he sprinted away from the carnage that decimated the rest of British tennis without a backward glance.

He was already 5-2 up in the first set and messing with the fragile mind of second-round opponent Ernests Gulbis when it happened.

Murray was behind the baseline when the ball came to him, on the back foot to a deep Gulbis forehand.

But instead of chopping a routine ground stroke back across the net, Murray attempted the most audacious of drop shots.

It floated through the air, heavy with slice and back spin and drifted an inch over the net.

It was so delicately hit, so beautifully judged, it died when it hit the grass and stopped before the service line.

Gulbis was rooted to the spot. That gave Murray set-point. He only needed one opportunity. He won it with an ace. If Murray had been tentative and nervous in his first-round match against Robbie Kendrick, last night he was magnificent.

It is easy sometimes to damn him with faint praise because of his counter-attacking style.

But the way he destroyed Gulbis 6-2 7-5 6-3 showed off the layered brilliance of his tennis, particularly his returning of the serve and his speed around the court.

If British tennis has spent much of the last four days in hell, Murray provided home fans with a belated glimpse of paradise on Centre Court.

Gulbis is no mug. A couple of years ago, the Latvian was being touted as a rising star and a possible top-10 player. He is a huge server and a hard hitter.

But Murray bewildered him. In fact, he toyed with him. He dragged him round the court, pulled him out of position, lobbed him, passed him with ease.

The world No.3 played clever, savvy tennis, taking the pace off Gulbis's driven forehands with drifted, sliced returns that kept the ball low.

It was merciless stuff. Gulbis probably wished he hadn't taken that cheap shot by claiming before the match that Murray had feigned injury in a previous match between the pair to gain an advantage.

There was no hint of injury yesterday. Murray covered the court as quickly as a gazelle.

Now and again, Gulbis tried to trick him with drop shots of his own but Murray chased them down and dismissed most of them with contemptuous ease.

The only time Gulbis caused him any kind of discomfort was in the second game when he forced two break points with some aggressive returning.

But Murray saved them both and then went on the attack himself as Gulbis became more and more dispirited by his opponent's dominance.

One of the Scot's great strengths is that he makes his opponents work incredibly hard for almost every point and he soon wore Gulbis down. The Latvian became erratic and wild, lashing his ground strokes wide and long as he was outclassed.

Even when he hit shots that would have been clean winners against other men, Murray's powers of retrieval were astonishing.

Gulbis only took three points on Murray's serve throughout the first set and even though he made a closer contest of the second set, he committed another unforced error to allow Murray to break him and take a 6-5 lead.

Murray closed out the set with an ace.

By midway through the third set, Gulbis was a basket case. He challenged one call when his service was ruled out only for the replay to show that his serve had missed the service line by about a foot.

Murray broke his serve with a terrific cross-court backhand passing shot and the rest of the match was a formality.

Even the atmosphere on Centre Court was better than it had been for Murray's first-round match.

Perhaps Middle England is learning to love him. They might as well. He's all they've got.

HIS ROUTE TO THE FINAL

THIRD ROUND

Viktor Troicki, the No.30 seed from Serbia, who KO'd Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

FOURTH ROUND Murray could have faced the dangerous Marat Safin but the Russian's early exit should set up a clash with No.19 seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

QUARTER-FINAL The British No.1 is slated to face Gilles Simon of France at this stage but Fernando Gonzalez, who defeated Murray in the quarter-finals of the French Open last month, is another possible foe.

SEMI-FINAL With Juan Martin del Potro biting the dust yesterday, Andy Roddick, the No.6 seed, should take advantage to face Murray in the semis.

FINAL Who else but Roger Federer?

CAPTION(S):

SERVING UP A TREAT Murray hits another ace WE'RE BEHIND YOU All eyes were on Britain's last hope in the singles with his girlfriend Kim and the fans on Murray Mound rooting for their hero