World No. 1 Andy Murray will start his campaign for a record sixth title at the Aegon Championships in London feeling much more confident than he was earlier this month amidst his struggles on clay.
The 30 year old started Roland Garros with a 4-4 record on the red dirt and entered the tournament having lost his last match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia to Italian Fabio Fognini.
But the Scot turned his clay season around in Paris, winning five consecutive matches to reach the semi-finals. Murray fell to Stan Wawrinka in a five-set battle. “I’m happier with where my game is at… Obviously I’m playing better now than I was before [Roland Garros] in practice. I have been hitting the ball a lot better than I was,” Murray said.
Yet the top seed in London believes he still has room for improvement as he kicks off his grass-court season in Great Britain. Murray said he’d like to see his serve as well as his movement get better as he once against becomes accustomed to the turf at The Queen’s Club. “I was a lot closer to where I want to be but still far from how I want to be playing,” he said.
Like Rafael Nadal’s accomplishments at Barcelona and Monte-Carlo, Murray’s achievements at The Queen’s Club are unparalleled. Last year, the Scot became the first man in the 126-year history of the tournament to win the event five times.
“This tournament over my career has been for sure my best tournament. I love playing here,” Murray said.
He will have the usual intense competition for the title. Every past champion since 2009 is in the field, including Marin Cilic (2012), Sam Querrey (2010) and Grigor Dimitrov (2014). Five of the Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, including World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, are also in the draw.
“The field this year is really strong, as it is most years,” Murray said.
Read Draw Preview: Murray Faces Tough Path For More London History
Last year, Murray solved Milos Raonic’s serve just in time to win the record fifth title. The Scot went on to win his second Wimbledon title as well. He later claimed a third title in London with his first Nitto ATP Finals title.
Aegon Championships Title Leaders
|
Andy Murray |
2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 |
|
Andy Roddick |
2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 |
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Lleyton Hewitt |
2000, 2001, 2002, 2006 |
|
Boris Becker |
1985, 1987, 1988, 1996 |
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John McEnroe |
1979, 1980, 1981, 1984 |
|
Roy Emerson |
1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 |
|
Anthony Wilding |
1907, 1910, 1911, 1912 |
|
Major J.G. Ritchie |
1902, 1904, 1906, 1909 |
The top seed is making his 12th Aegon Championships appearance, but his first as World No. 1. Murray boasts a remarkable 30-5 record at the event with titles in each of the past four odd years (2009, 2011, 2013, 2015). He is also on a 14-match win streak on grass and has a 125-26 record in Great Britain (.828).
Learn More In Murray’s FedEx ATP Win/Loss Section
British number two Naomi Broady earned one of the best wins of her career by beating France’s Alize Cornet at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham.
The 27-year-old, who is ranked 111, took her third match point to win 7-6 (7-3) 6-0 against the world number 38.
Cornet, who reached the French Open last 16 earlier this month, won the opening three games before Broady fought back to reach the second round.
Earlier, Heather Watson lost 6-2 5-7 6-3 to world number five Elina Svitolina.
Broady reached a career-high ranking of 76 last year, but has fallen outside the top 100 over the past four months.
However, she showed her battling qualities to fight back for her fifth win against a top-50 ranked player.
“The first two games were really long, I think we had been playing 20 minutes, and I thought ‘stick with it’,” Broady said.
“Then I got my stuff together. I have played lots of tie-breaks recently so I am in tip-top tie-break form.
“It is definitely a big win. I’m fighting to get back inside top 100, hopefully I can get my ranking up before the US Open – that’s my main focus.”
Former British number one Watson has dropped to 126th in the rankings after a difficult season in which she has won just five matches.
But there were signs of encouragement as she pushed Ukraine’s Svitolina to a deciding set.
The 25-year-old from Guernsey made too many errors as Svitolina took the opening set, but recovered in the second to break the French Open quarter-finalist’s serve to lead 6-5.
Watson served out the set confidently, finishing with a forehand winner down the line, only to drop serve in the fourth game of the decider as Svitolina saw out victory.
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| 2017 Aegon Championships |
|---|
| Venue: Queen’s Club, London Dates: 19-25 June |
| Coverage: Comprehensive live coverage on BBC One, BBC Two, Red Button, Connected TV and online daily |
Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov upset British number two Kyle Edmund with a terrific performance on day one of the Aegon Championships in London.
Shapovalov, 18, won 7-6 (7-4) 4-6 6-4 at Queen’s Club and goes on to face Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych.
This was the biggest win of the Wimbledon junior champion’s burgeoning career, and a setback for Edmund, 22.
The Briton is ranked 146 places higher than Shapovalov at 47th and reached the quarter-finals at Queen’s last year.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest wins,” the Canadian wildcard told BBC Sport.
“Kyle is an unbelievable player.
“It’s just incredible, the feelings I have being able to play on Centre Court like this in front of thousands of people and against such a great player.”
Monday’s encounter was a rematch of a Davis Cup contest in February, which ended when Shapovalov was defaulted for hitting a ball in frustration that fractured umpire Arnaud Gabas’s eye socket.
“Before the match I felt pretty tight,” said Shapovalov.
“Once I got into it, it was fine. I didn’t have many thoughts except I was thinking ‘please don’t do anything dumb this match. So many cameras on me’.
“But I didn’t really think about the incident. It was a new match. It’s behind me now.”
Grigor Dimitrov and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also progressed on the opening day at Queen’s, but Nick Kyrgios retired with an injury.
The Australian ninth seed aggravated a hip problem when he slipped at the baseline while playing Donald Young, but is optimistic he will recover for Wimbledon.
Bulgarian sixth seed Dimitrov, champion in 2014, beat American Ryan Harrison 6-3 6-1, and fifth seed Tsonga beat fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-2 6-2.
Reigning champion Andy Murray plays compatriot Aljaz Bedene on Tuesday.
With an on-court temperature well in excess of 30C, Shapovalov kept a cooler head with the match on the line against the more experienced Edmund.
The Canadian showed why he is widely tipped to build on last year’s Wimbledon junior title with an impressive display.
His attacking style, swinging left-handed serve and single-handed backhand brought him only his second win on the ATP Tour.
He took a tight opening set on the tie-break before dropping serve to love with a loose game at the start of the second.
Edmund served his way to one set all but was playing catch-up serving second in the decider, and the pressure told.
Two double-faults in a row saw him slip 0-40 – and three match points – down, and Shapovalov converted the third when the Briton framed a forehand.
“He held at four-all, and then I think I made an unforced error on the first point and two double faults. That’s basically it,” said Edmund.
“It doesn’t help when you haven’t got much margin for error if you lose those points. But it’s a tennis match, so I’ve just got to try to not do it again.”
Edmund is playing doubles with Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis at Queen’s Club, and will head to Eastbourne next week for his final tournament before Wimbledon.
The Briton has a 3-10 career record on grass at the top level and has yet to win in four attempts in the main draw at Wimbledon.
“It’s just one match at a time,” he said. “I have lost matches on grass, I have won matches on grass.
“So I don’t think grass has anything to do with it. It’s the same for everyone.”
Watch five of the best shots as Kyle Edmund suffers a shock first-round exit at Queen’s Club to Canadian qualifier Denis Shapovalov.
2014 champion Dimitrov also advances
In an all-French first-round contest, fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made a strong start to his Aegon Championships campaign as he defeated Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 6-2 on a hot day at The Queen’s Club in London.
Tsonga, who this week returned to the Top 10 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, was largely untroubled in his first grass-court outing of the season. The right-hander advanced in 66 minutes, converting five of his 13 break points to avenge the defeat he suffered to Mannarino a few weeks ago on the clay in Monte-Carlo.
“For me it was really important to have a victory,” said Tsonga, who suffered the disappointment of a first-round loss at Roland Garros in his last tournament. “On clay it was difficult. So it’s good to be back and be able to play second round in Queen’s. I took some time off, and I practised a lot. I had the good sense to have a grass court at my house, so I just practised and prepare this grass season, which is a good surface for me. Hopefully I will be able to do something good.”
The 32-year-old Tsonga is making his sixth appearance at this ATP World Tour 500 tournament. He reached the final in 2011, finishing runner-up to Andy Murray. The Frenchman, also a former Wimbledon semi-finalist (2011-12), is looking for his first grass-court title this week.
Sixth seed Grigor Dimitrov also advanced for the loss of just four games, dismissing Ryan Harrison 6-3, 6-1 in 54 minutes. The Bulgarian improved to a 3-1 lead in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series as he lost only eight points on serve and broke Harrison four times.
The 26-year-old Dimitrov rebounded strongly from the opening-round exit he suffered last week in Stuttgart (l. to Janowicz). The right-hander won the title at The Queen’s Club in 2014 (d. Lopez), one of six ATP World Tour titles to his name. He is chasing his third title of the season this week, following victories in Brisbane (d. Nishikori) and Sofia (d. Goffin), which bookended a run to the Australian Open semi-finals (l. to Nadal).
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