Tennis

Andy Murray’s loss in first round of Queen’s ends hope of seeding for Wimbledon

Scotsman loses in straight sets against Australia’s Alex de Minaur

Andy Murray during his Men's Singles match against Alex de Minaur. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA Wire
Andy Murray during his Men's Singles match against Alex de Minaur. Photograph: Adam Davy/PA Wire
Tumaini Carayol
Wed Jun 21 2023 - 11:39

Andy Murray’s hopes of being seeded at Wimbledon came to a bitter, abrupt end in his opening match at Queen’s Club as the five-time champion was soundly defeated 6-3, 6-1 by Alex de Minaur in the first round.

Murray arrived in west London with high expectations having established some positive form on grass. After skipping the French Open, he opted to drop down to ATP Challenger level and competed at events in Surbiton and Nottingham, comfortably winning both tournaments and compiling a 10-match winning run.

However, he looked laboured from the beginning against the Australian seventh seed, spraying unforced errors and moving timidly as De Minaur smothered him with consistent aggression. Murray refused to blame his defeat on his intense schedule as he competed for a third successive week. “I felt OK going into the match. Just didn’t play very well,” he said.

Now ranked 38th, Murray needed a quarter-final at Queen’s Club to give himself a solid chance of being a top‑32 seed at Wimbledon and ensure he could avoid a high seed in the first two rounds. He will instead have to wait to see what the draw produces for him next Friday.

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“Obviously after today, you know, it’s easy to overreact,” Murray said. “Well, no, I lost to a good player and it was obviously very comfortable but at the same time, over the last couple of weeks, yes, it’s obviously not the same level of opponents, but I won the tournament last week without dropping a set. I only lost one set in Surbiton. Was holding serve very comfortably, was moving well, hitting the ball good. There is a lot of positive signs there.”

Eleven days since his tense, anticlimactic semi-final defeat against Novak Djokovic in the French Open, Carlos Alcaraz looked forward to new objectives as he continued to learn how to perform at a high level. On his Queen’s Club debut, the Spaniard recovered from a set deficit as he defeated Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (3) to reach the second round.

In his short time as a professional, Alcaraz has performed at the highest level on clay and hard courts, but Queen’s is only the third senior grass court tournament of his career. Like many young players, he is still learning the nuances of grass court tennis.

Before the tournament, he made it clear that his movement is still a work in progress on the surface. At times, he remained slow out of the corners when changing directions. But the 20-year-old slowly buckled down, producing some special shotmaking in the decisive moments. After the Spaniard recovered from a 2-0 deficit in the third set, the pair held serve until they reached the tie-break and Alcaraz took his first win at Queen’s.

“During the match I was thinking that I need hours on court. I need to play as much as I can,” Alcaraz said, smiling. “So for me, it was great to have this tough match. I’m saying that after winning. If I had lost, it was totally different. But it was really good for me, coming in.”

Meanwhile, Frances Tiafoe celebrated his first week as a top‑10 player with another victory. The new No 10, who won the Stuttgart Open last week, is the third African-American man to reach the top 10 of the ATP rankings and the first since the former No 4 James Blake. With Taylor Fritz ranked No 8, this week marks the first time since 2012 that two American players have been inside the top 10.

“I always believed in it before anybody else did,” he said. “Now I’m here and I’m super excited. Can’t really write it any other way. Got in top 10. It was Juneteenth yesterday. It’s just all around a great day. Yeah, I mean, again, I hope, I think just keep going. I texted and called James. He didn’t answer. He big-timed me. He Hollywooded me.”

In Birmingham, Katie Boulter’s winning run was ended with defeat by China’s Zhu Lin in the first round of the Rothesay Classic. Boulter had celebrated the best achievement of her career in Nottingham on Sunday when she won her first WTA Tour title to reach a highest ranking of 77 but was unable to back it up at Edgbaston Priory against Zhu, the world No 39, in a 7-5, 7-5 defeat.

The second seed Jelena Ostapenko battled to a three-set win against the Czech teenager Linda Noskova in the opening match, winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 to set up a second-round meeting with Venus Williams. – Guardian