Andy Murray’s hip problems may have generated questions about his capacity to defend his Wimbledon title, but his latest beaten opponent reckoned the Scot has ‘an answer for everything’ as he dismissed any doubts about the world number one’s fitness.

Maverick performer Dustin Brown tried every trick in his extensive repertoire to unsettle Murray on Centre Court, but the 32-year-old, whose greatest win came at the same venue when he shocked Rafael Nadal two years ago, was frustrated in his bid to exploit the much discussed injury.

“Well, if he has a problem with his hip, I don't want to play against him when his hip is good,” he said.

“Obviously there was speculation about it, you know, people saying he's not walking or whatever.

“I hit a lot of dropshots in the beginning, tried to get him in to see how the hip is, pull him into the forehand.

“From my opinion, he doesn't really care about any of that stuff. He played really well.”

Brown managed to stay in touch until failing to hold his serve for the first time in the eighth game, but Murray dropped just four more games from that point in cruising to a 96 minute 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

“Once he got that break, it just become very difficult,” Brown admitted.

“Most of the guys you play, you can try to find a way where you know you can hurt them. If you do it, the whole match is a different situation, but today I had the feeling it made no difference what I did.

“If I stayed back, if I attacked, if I came in, if I chipped, if I hit the ball and came in. He pretty had much a good answer for everything.”

After facing two highly unorthodox opponents in Brown and Alexander (Sasha) Bublik, Murray is now up against one he is all too familiar with, Fabio Fognini having beaten him in half of their six recent meetings, the last of those wins just last month at the Italian Open.

Murray is consequently wary, but reckons his preparation will be more straightforward.

“Fognini is an incredible shot maker, but he's a slightly different sort of player to Dustin and Sasha,” he observed.

“In my opinion, he plays certainly a more orthodox style of tennis. He's more solid but can play some incredible shots. I mean, certainly first two matches have been, you know, difficult to come up with game plans, because you don't know exactly how the two guys are going to play.

“I think against Fabio, although he's been a better player over the years than the two guys I played first two matches, it's maybe easier to come up with a game plan because there will be a bit more structure and strategy in the match rather than just, you know, reacting and sort of more kind of instinctive points. So hopefully it will easier to prepare in that respect.”

The Italian also acknowledged that with home advantage favouring his opponent this time around, it will be much harder to pull off another upset.

“If I have to be honest, I think it's completely different,” he said.

“When I played at home, I played a really good match on the night. Here it's completely different. Of course, it's Wimbledon. It's home for him, it’s best-of-five.

“Of course, he's the defending champion. So it's going to be really tough, for sure. He's the favorite.

“I think I have the game to play against him, hopefully to play my best tennis another time, try to complicate his life on court.

“I think is going to be good match. Of course, I would like to try to do my best and if I play like that, it could be interesting.

“I know how to play against him. We know each other really well. I'm ready, I hope to be ready.”