Wimbledon 2012: Andy Murray faces fierce test of mettle against Spanish iron man David Ferrer "I've known him and Javier Piles, his coach, for a long time," Murray added. I chat to Javier about running a lot - he is an unbelievably fit guy. When we're at the Miami tournament, at the end of the day he always runs back all the way from the courts in Key Biscayne to where their hotel is. It's like 11 kilometres. And obviously that work ethic has paid off with David. Expect this to be a serious test of nerve for Murray, and for the Centre-Court crowd too. There is little to choose between them: They are level on the head-to-head count with five matches each, and in grand slam events it is one win apiece, after Murray's quarter-final defeat in Paris a month ago. There are parallels in playing style too, for both men hate giving away freebies. So far this Wimbledon, they have the lowest unforced error counts among the eight survivors (52 to Murray and 44 to Ferrer), and whenever one of them misses you can see the agony written across his face. In Murray's case, this is because he is a uniquely stubborn character, who takes every failing personally. As for Ferrer, his natural tenacity has been honed by the hard-bitten Piles, who famously locked him in a cupboard as a teenager when he showed insufficient commitment to practise. The man who emerged from those harsh years of training possesses such superhuman resolve that Ferrer's cupboard has taken on mythical proportions - making it the tennis equivalent of Peter Parker's spider-bite, or Batman's early bereavement. In that cupboard, Piles forged the man whom the Spaniards call "Ferru" - a diminutive that translates to "Iron" in Catalan. Murray and Ferrer will be second on Centre Court today, which could be handy if there are more showers to disrupt the outside courts. It is the turn of defending champion Novak Djokovic to battle the elements on the roofless Court No 1, which rather evens things up after Murray had to play through the drizzle in his fourth-round match against Marin Cilic. After persistent rain had prevented any play after 4.20pm on Monday afternoon, Murray came back at noon yesterday leading by a set and a break. And he knew there could be no relaxing against Cilic, because the weather radar was predicting interruptions all afternoon. Murray only had a short window of opportunity to get the job done. To his great credit, he snatched his chance with an emphatic three-set victory: 7-5, 6-2, 6-3. It was a compelling performance, in which his serve was so dominant that he seemed to be channelling the spirit of Pete Sampras. The key moment came in the first game of the third set, when Cilic gathered his fading resources to launch one final assault, and succeeded in gaining four set points. Murray rebuffed each one with an unplayable service winner, two of which the Croatian could not even lay a racket on. With any luck, we can now put the debate over scheduling to bed. Murray has survived his trial by wind and weather on Court No 1, and took a philosophical stance last night about the whole affair. "I don't deserve to play all my matches on Centre Court," he said. Maybe someone like Roger [Federer does]. From here on in, he will have the advantage of the roof on his side. But even if the order-of-play subcommittee has faded out of the picture, there could be more trouble ahead, in the shape of the remorseless, implacable David Ferrer.