Andy Murray: Ricky Gervais, basketball and dinner plans

Whether it's meeting a comedy hero, playing a bit of basketball or planning a surprise Saturday night on the town, it's good to break up the routine every now and then.

After one of my earliest ever Wimbledon finishes on Wednesday, I get the middle weekend off for only the second time I can remember.

Don't worry, I won't be out until the early hours, but it does give me the chance to go for dinner if I want, or at least to have a few of the guys round to watch the football.

Having two days without a match could have a positive effect on the court too, as I can hit for a bit longer on Saturday and work on a few things before getting back to my normal routine on Sunday.

During a tournament you usually just have one day off, so you can't really practise anything different, but maybe I'll try a couple of things out on Saturday.

Comedian Ricky Gervais paid a visit on Friday and got involved in Murray's post-match warm down

I was very happy with the way I played against Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday and it's been a good start to the tournament for me.

Sometimes you can start to see the finish line and lose concentration when you get up in the third set of a match, but I've experienced it before when I've been playing well and guys have started to come back. You just try to keep it going, keep concentrating, and don't give them a chance.

The last moment you see me after a match is probably my TV interview, but I'm usually at the All England Club for several more hours. That's when the tried and tested routine kicks in.

After speaking to TV, I head straight to the locker room and drop off my bag before going to the gym and getting on the bike for 10 minutes. My team will be there so I can speak about the match with my coaches, Amelie and Dani, and sometimes ice my knee, elbow, shoulder - any bits of my body that feel a bit sore.

Then it's back upstairs for a shower, some food, 45 minutes of physio treatment and finally doing my media commitments.

Murray paid a visit to the ESPN studios after his win over Bautista Agut

This week there has also been a bit of extra competition going on in the locker room as there's a mini basketball hoop, which has been hung on Milos Raonic's locker for most of the tournament.

One of the physios, Clay, is pretty useful, but Daniel Nestor, the Canadian doubles player, talks like he's the best thing since sliced bread. He's really not that good.

There was also a new face in the gym after Friday's match as comedian Ricky Gervais came along, as I'd invited him to sit in my player box - he even tried out one of the bikes. I'd never met him before, although had plenty of Twitter banter and I've watched all of his shows and his stand-up.

I watched The Office pretty much every night when I was training in Spain as a kid. I could probably recite every line from every episode, but I resisted the temptation. I imagine he gets asked about that stuff all of the time.

Ricky said it was the first time in a while he had been to Wimbledon, and that he plays a bit of tennis - he also asked why my opponent was slipping over more than me!

He might come along to the US Open because he spends quite a lot of time in New York, so I promised we'd have a hit on the courts over there. It was cool to meet him and, like Shaquille O'Neal's visit to Wimbledon the other day, it's good for tennis to attract the interest of these big stars.

An extra day off will give Murray and Mauresmo time to work on a few different areas of his game

Promoting the sport is part of our job and I think tennis players probably do more media than other athletes. I know football managers do a lot, but in terms of the actual athletes I don't think many do more media.

We've always done it and I don't mind, but from a player's perspective it can become repetitive as you do it after every single match. The questions can start to get a bit silly because nobody wants to be asking the same thing over and over.

Sometimes I think it might be more fun if there wasn't the same structure all the time as the journalists would be more creative, and it would be better for everyone.

Next up for me on Monday is Kevin Anderson in the fourth round. He's a big guy with a big game, so I'll work on my returning a bit over the weekend, but everyone plays well from the back of the court these days, too.

It's the second week of a Grand Slam, so the matches are obviously going to get tougher, but I've given myself another opportunity and it's just down to me to play some good tennis now.

Andy Murray was talking to BBC Sport's Piers Newbery.