ANDY Murray will continue to try to navigate his way through his unorthodox draw when he takes on Frenchman Benoit Paire in round four today.

Perceived wisdom is that tennis is dominated by baseline grinders but Murray may beg to differ after his first week at Wimbledon. The defending champion’s first two opponents, Alexander Bublik and Dustin Brown, see trick shots as routine strategy while his third-round foe Fabio Fognini is one of the most volatile players on tour.

The Italian zoned in and out of the match, racking up 44 winners, 49 unforced errors and one point penalty for a visible obscenity. Paire is cut from the same cloth and, like Fognini, can be a danger to fancied opponents as well as himself.

Murray will surely never have faced as many drop shots in four consecutive matches in his life, while the Paire backhand is among the best on tour.

“He again has a different game to a lot of the guys now,” said Murray. “He has very good hands, moves well, takes a lot of chances, goes for his shots.

“Again, he can be quite up and down. But he seems to have played pretty well so far at this event. I expect that to be tricky. I’ve never played him on the grass before.

“I think until this year he hasn’t played so well on the grass himself. But I see no reason why he can’t play good grass-court tennis. I think I only played him once before, and it was a really tight match.”

That match was a suitably unpredictable affair in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters last year, when Paire led by a set and two breaks and served for victory in the deciding set only for Murray to claw his way back. The Scot later credited the win for sparking the remarkable run of form that brought him Wimbledon and Olympic titles and the No 1 ranking.

Murray may not have expected their second encounter to come at this stage of Wimbledon, a place Paire said he hated only three years ago.

But the world No 46 has changed his tune, and also believes he has overcome the paralysing nerves that once afflicted him.

Paire said: “I think I’m playing for sure my best tennis. I think mentally I’m different this year. I want to play full all the match. I want to stay focused during all the match. That’s the difference from before.

“Sometimes I was nervous if I was missing the serve, I was missing the drop shot. Every time I was p***ed.”

After wins over Rogerio Dutra Silva and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Paire booked his place in round four with a straight-sets victory against former semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz.

He said: “I remember I played in 2013 on the same court against [Lukasz] Kubot, and I was so nervous and I broke all my rackets.

“So I think that’s the big difference between 2013 and now. Now I stay focused and I stay calm. For me, it’s good. I’m really happy to be in the second week in Wimbledon.”

Murray looks set to play all of his matches on Centre Court for the second consecutive year after the clash was scheduled second on the main stage. Paire is looking forward to the occasion and believes he can cause an upset.

“To play Murray on Centre Court will be a good experience,” said the 28-year-old. “I think I can do something good against him.”

Paire will certainly have taken note of the scoreline between Murray and Fognini, even if he insisted he would rather throw a barbecue than watch the match.

Fognini caused the Scot a lot of problems and would have forced a fifth set but for one of Murray’s trademark fightbacks.

The 30-year-old has been limping all week as he attempts to overcome a sore hip and said he would use the two-day break between matches to fine-tune his game.

“Obviously I missed a few days’ practice last week,” he said. “I’ll work on some of the things I would have done before the tournament if I had those days there.”