Andy Murray comes through his first all-British contest for 10 years, beating Aljaz Bedene 6-3 6-4 in the second round at Queen’s Club.
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Britain’s Davis Cup captain Leon Smith has challenged Dan Evans to break into the world’s top 30 after climbing 662 places to world number 92 in one year.
Evans, 26, helped Britain win the Davis Cup and collected three ATP Challenger titles in the past 12 months.
“It’s a great story but it shouldn’t stop here,” Smith told BBC Sport.
“It’s a learning curve about what it takes, not just to stay at that ranking, but also how to get to the top 70, top 50, or top 30.”
Evans has not won a Grand Slam main draw match since 2013, but the British number four has shown that he is capable of performing under pressure at an elite level, having clinched Davis Cup ties against Slovakia and Russia in the last four years.
Before losing in the first round at Queen’s Club on Wednesday Evans had also not played in an ATP World Tour event since Eastbourne in 2014.
He quickly gets another chance at the Aegon Open Nottingham event, which starts on Saturday,
And while Evans has not been playing regularly at Tour level in recent times, Smith has still called upon him to produce for his country – including last year’s semi-final against Australia.
Smith now feels that Evans, who is based at the Nottingham Tennis Centre with coach Mark Hilton, has matured as a player.
“Everyone comes through at their own stage, and he wasn’t ready before,” Smith said. “He wasn’t ready to be at that level every single day and he’s made a great jump over the last 12 months.
“There’s a lot of learning still to be done, but he’s very committed.
“He’s got to focus on what he’s done well in the past year to get to this point and learn from the bigger tournaments he is playing in more often now.
“This phase of the season is an important period for him to test his game against the best players in the world. He can win matches at this level and we’ve seen that at the Davis Cup.”
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Top-seeded Americans into the semi-finals in Germany
Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan moved into the semi-finals of the Gerry Weber Open with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Tomas Berdych and Marcel Granollers on Halle on Wednesday. The American twins next will face Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram or another set of brothers, Alexander Zverev and Mischa Zverev of Germany.
Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 7-6(5) win against lucky losers Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky.
Seeded Teams Cruise At The Queen’s Club
Top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut breezed past Dominic Inglot/Daniel Nestor 6-3, 6-3 in 50 minutes in the first round of the Aegon Championships on Wednesday. The Frenchman saved three break points and won 88 per cent of first serve points. They improved to 20-4 on the year.
Second seeds Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares and third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer/Horia Tecau also won their first-round matches. Murray/Soares beat Americans Steve Johnson/Nicholas Monroe 7-6(2), 6-3, while Rojer/Tecau edged Canadians Vasek Pospisil/Milos Raonic 7-6(7), 7-6(3) in a match that featured no breaks of serve.
Wild cards Jonathan Erlich/Colin Fleming overcame a 0-6 first set to win 0-6, 6-2, 10/6 against Brits Aljaz Bedene and Kyle Edmund. They will face Rojer/Tecau in the quarter-finals.
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Aegon Championships – London, Great Britain
Andy Murray got a visit from David Beckham at The Queen’s Club. Beckham’s son Romeo is a huge tennis fan and had a hit with the Scot. Watch Video
Milos Raonic soaked in some British history at a famous landmark ahead of the tournament. Watch Video
Nick Kyrgios spent time with future British tennis stars at the Tennis for Kids clinic. Watch Video
Gilles Simon, Roberto Bautista Agut and Edmund visited the Moet Chandon suite, Steve Johnson stopped by the Aegon, BNP and Haagen Dazs suites and Raonic made an appearance for sponsors Aegon and Ricoh.
Gerry Weber Open – Halle, Germany
Home favourite Dustin Brown visited Children’s Hospital Bethel, just outside of Halle, to present a cheque of 15,000 on behalf of the Gerry Weber Open. Brown met hospital staff and made the presentation in the Roger Federer Kitchen, which was financed by the tournament, before making private visits to two young children being treated in the hospital. View Photo
The Gerry Weber Open has supported the hospital since 2005, with Federer, Tommy Haas and Alexander Waske all visiting in the past.
“It really was very interesting,” said Brown. “I’m always keen to give back and the tournament has shown a lot of confidence in me over the past few years. I asked about the kids because at first I thought it was just a cancer station and I was shocked when I saw a five-week-old kid, but then they said it’s also for babies that are born too early or with viral infections. That’s obviously not great, but it soothed me a little bit, because I felt really bad. It’s great from the Webers to give back in the region.”
Daylong ambassador Philipp Kohlschreiber attended an autograph session and their booth on site. The sunscreen brand has been handing out sample products and doing giveaways at the tournament all week long. View Photo
Best of ATP Stars 2016
Open Gallery
| Aegon Championships – Andy Murray v Aljaz Bedene |
|---|
| Venue: Queen’s Club, London Date: 16 June Time: 14:00 BST approx |
| Coverage: Live on BBC Two, Radio 5 live & 5 live sports extra, Red Button, Connected TVs and BBC Sport website. |
Andy Murray will face a British opponent for the first time in 10 years when he takes on Aljaz Bedene at Queen’s Club on Thursday.
The pair will meet in the second round of the Aegon Championships at about 14:00 BST.
Slovenia-born Bedene gained UK citizenship last year and, at 58th in the world, is the British number two.
Top seed Murray last faced a fellow Briton in 2006, when he lost to Tim Henman in Bangkok.
“It’s amazing really,” said Murray, who is trying to win a record fifth title at Queen’s Club.
“I think maybe Tim is the only one that I ever played. I never played Greg [Rusedski] in a competitive match.
“It’s been a long wait really.”
Bedene has practised with Murray several times since gaining citizenship last March, and the 26-year-old had hoped to be part of the Great Britain Davis Cup squad by now.
He was denied by an International Tennis Federation tribunal and Bedene hopes Thursday’s match will provide a chance to introduce himself to the British public.
“I don’t see any better court than a court in England, one of the biggest courts,” said Bedene.
“I’m just going to try and play my best tennis and show myself.”
Murray will be playing his second match since Ivan Lendl returned to his coaching team and the new line-up had time for a first full practice on Wednesday.
“It’s good to get a proper practice session in, hopefully a few hours on the court and work on a few things,” said the world number two.
“It’s great to have him back as part of the team.”
World number three Agnieszka Radwanska was knocked out of the Aegon Classic in Birmingham as American Coco Vandeweghe secured a hard-fought 7-5 4-6 6-3 win.
The Polish top seed had won all four of her previous matches between the pair.
British number one Johanna Konta’s match against Misaki Doi was delayed until Thursday by wet weather.
Naomi Broady and Tara Moore – the British numbers three and four – lost their matches against Daria Gavrilova and Tamira Paszek respectively.
Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard’s poor form continued as she lost to Latvian world number 82 Anastasija Sevastova in Mallorca.
The 22-year-old Canadian, who lost to Petra Kvitova in the 2014 final at the All England Club, has only been beyond the third round in two of the 13 tournaments she has played this year.
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Milos Raonic won an ace-laden first-round clash against Nick Kyrgios on Wednesday at the Aegon Championships to start his partnership with four-time former Queen’s Club champion John McEnroe in style. Third seed Raonic hit 20 aces and converted two of his 11 break point opportunities in a 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Kyrgios, who struck 17 aces, in two hours and five minutes. The match had resumed at the start of the third set after it was suspended due to bad light on Monday night. Raonic will next play lucky loser Jiri Vesely in the second round.
Earlier in the day, wild card Kyle Edmund, who is part of the ATP’s Next Generation, recorded the biggest match win of his career. The 21-year-old Briton defeated eighth seed and last year’s semi-finalist Gilles Simon 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, in a rain-interrupted encounter over one hour and 43 minutes. It was only Edmund’s second grass-court win in nine tour-level matches.
Another British wild card Dan Evans came close to becoming the fourth local hope in the second round, but 34-year-old Paul-Henri Mathieu silenced supporters with a 7-6(8), 6-7(6), 6-3 win over two hours and 35 minutes. World No. 92 Evans hit 13 aces, while Mathieu saved seven of nine break points.