Andy Murray suffers large Wimbledon blow with Queen’s Club defeat
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ndy Murray suffered a significant blow to his Wimbledon hopes after falling to a first-round defeat on the cinch Championships.
The five-time Queen’s Club winner paid for an error-strewn, irritable efficiency as he slipped to a 6-3 6-1 loss towards Alex De Minaur.
Murray had received 10 matches in a row in claiming back-to-back grass-court titles in Surbiton and Nottingham.
But Australian seventh seed De Minaur – the world quantity 18 – was a significant step up at school and possibly one of many trickiest first-round opponents Murray might have drawn.
The 24-year-old actually knew his means round a grass courtroom; he’s a former Eastbourne champion and reached the fourth spherical at Wimbledon final 12 months.
He was just too robust for 36-year-old Murray, sending him spinning to a defeat which implies, barring an unlikely raft of withdrawals, that he is not going to be seeded at Wimbledon subsequent month.
Murray most likely wanted to succeed in the quarter-finals not less than to have an opportunity of being one of many high 32 gamers at SW19, however now the two-time champion – at the moment ranked 38 – is liable to dealing with one of many massive weapons within the early rounds.
“I knew I was pretty much either going to have to make a final here if I didn’t do well in Surbiton and Nottingham, or if I won both of those events, it was looking like at least a quarter-final to do it,” mentioned Murray.
“I was aware of that before all of the matches that I played the last few weeks. I dealt with it fine the last two weeks. So, yeah, I don’t think it had any bearing on how I played today.”
Despite the setback, Murray believes he can nonetheless combine it with lots of the seeded gamers at Wimbledon.
“Yeah, I think so,” he added. “You know, obviously grass, there are less players that are probably comfortable on the surface than the clay and the hard courts.
“You know, among the seeded gamers are perhaps not that snug on the grass, so there’s some attracts which might be higher than others.”
Murray’s look within the singles might have been fleeting, however event organisers will not less than be relieved he has opted to play doubles with British primary Cameron Norrie; they face Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram on Wednesday night.
Britain’s Liam Broady was denied a notable win after world quantity 46 Adrian Mannarino got here from a set all the way down to win in three.
Broady, ranked 97 locations behind the Frenchman at 143, raced away with the primary set however was pegged again in a 1-6 6-4 6-3 defeat.
Fellow Brit Ryan Peniston – who beat Ugo Humbert on Monday – will face second seed Holger Rune in spherical two after the Danish teen received 7-6 (4) 7-6 (3) towards Maxime Cressy for his first profession victory on grass.