On Day 4 at Wimbledon, the big news was all about Rafael Nadal and another early exit from SW19. It had been a day when the loaded bottom half of the draw took to the courts, and at the start of the day, few would have predicted the upset that was to come.

Indeed, as the day started with a sprinkling of rain, to hopefully lighten the muggy conditions, Andy Murray was in no mood to hang about, as he opened play on Court No. 1. The AELTC obviously wanted to get his rotation out of the way early and must have wondered as the covers were inflated (which is never a good sign) if they had made the right call.

Thankfully, the weather decided to play ball as Murray came out to a grateful crowd. Not that Murray gave them much time this time, spinning through the first two sets as Robin Haase looked all at sea. The Dutchman did not really even get flying until the third set, when he became a bit more competitive, but by then it was too late.

“I've obviously had some tough matches with him in the past,” said Murray. “I know when he's on, he can make it extremely difficult. He can be pretty flashy and play two or three great games in a row.”

“I wanted to make sure that I didn't give him that opportunity. There were a couple of times in that third set where he had maybe Love-30 on my serve, 15-30. I managed to stop him from gaining any momentum.”

After Roger Federer provided a masterclass against the big-serving Sam Querrey, he offered a fairly clinical assessment of his performance.

He said, “Today was definitely a good day. I definitely think I can serve a little bit better. I didn't check my match stats, but I feel like things are definitely good out there.”

“Querrey can definitely be dangerous. He's got a big game, especially on the grass. He was going for his shots today. It was important today to move well and be clear in the important moments. I felt like I was. It was a good match.”

And what of that upset? It was going to be all about whether Dustin Brown would be able to balance entertaining tennis and match the brutality of weight of shots coming back from Nadal. The answer proved to be a resounding ‘yes.’ While commentators who perhaps do not follow as much of the smaller tournaments as they should marvelled at some of the well-documented elements of Brown’s more itinerant days, the German was tantalizingly going about his business with confidence and verve, edging Nadal for the first set.

But as always there was the omnipresent question:  could a lower-ranked player withstand the comeback? Nadal was quick to break for the advantage in the second set, and to all intents and purposes it looked as though the natural order of things was to be resumed.

Brown came back in the third set with as impressive a level of confidence as it was alarming to watch Nadal starting to unravel. With memories of his second-round exit to Lukas Rosol under the roof now being debated with every ball strike, all eyes went again to Brown to see if the prospect of closing out a win would unsettle him.

The fact he broke Nadal in the first game of the fourth set suggested perhaps not. To give Nadal his due, he saved two match points on his serve to stay in contention at 4-5. But Brown took his third match point on his own serve to send Nadal home 7-5 3-6 6-4 6-4.

Nadal had to ruefully admit, “In this court especially, you meet players that don't want to play from the baseline sometimes. This opponent is one of these ones. You cannot have mistakes against a player like him with that big serve. Serving first and second was almost the same speed.”

“Without having rhythm at all, I didn't hit three balls in a row the same way. Then when you need to hit that extra ball, you don't have the confidence to do it. So that's what happened.”

Brown’s tactics were simple but devastatingly effective.

“Well, the point is whatever I do is to take him out of his comfort zone,” he said. “If I would stay in the back and rally with him left, right, that would not be a very good match for me. I know that. Obviously I try to play my game.”

“Even if I miss a few returns or whatever, it's also good if he doesn't get that many hits and obviously doesn't get into a rhythm. The second set there, he got into it a little bit, and that was very difficult for me because I had to put the volley on a dime in the corner.  Even then, he still passed me. I had to concentrate on the serve and put more on it.”

With Nadal out of the way, Murray’s draw opens up quite nicely at the quarterfinal stage, although he still has Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to get through potentially in the fourth round.

Third-round play for the top half of the draw starts on Friday.