QUEEN’S FULL OF ROYALTY...
Murray and Nadal lead best field in decades
THE reigning French Open champion will be there, and so will Rafael Nadal — that all sounds a bit new and strange, but the build-up to Wimbledon is different this year.
Stan Wawrinka, Nadal and Andy Murray head a beefed-up field for the Aegon Championships at London’s Queen’s Club that starts today, always the reliable indicator that the big fortnight is around the corner.
The only doubtful starter is Wawrinka’s famous patterned shorts, which he is unsure about wearing as Wimbledon’s austere clothing rules will forbid their use two weeks today.
An impressive nine of the world’s top 15 will be at Queen’s, whose stronger lineup this year owes itself to the three-week gap opened up between Roland Garros and SW19 and its elevation to ‘500’ status on the ATP Tour.
That means double the ranking points, a smaller, 32-strong field and more than double the overall prize money to £1.2 million, which in the case of the winner will see him take home £280,000.
Nobody will be sniffing at that, but for the main players the primary object is to get in the best possible match shape to contest the season’s third Grand Slam.
And this time there can be no excuses from any of the top men or women for not being fully prepared for SW19, whereas in previous years they could have pointed to the way the grasscourt season was shoehorned into a congested calendar.
Philip Brook, chairman of the All England Club, can take the credit for driving the change through in a sport where structural alterations are desperately difficult to effect.
Nadal appears to be an early beneficiary after his fall from grace at Roland Garros. Last night he was flying to London after bouncing back from his quarter-final exit in Paris by winning the inaugural grasscourt event in Stuttgart, beating Viktor Troicki 7-6, 6-3 in the final.
For all his struggles of the past year, the 29-year-old Spaniard remains a two-time winner at Wimbledon and another r un t his week would dramatically reboot his confidence.
Top seed Murray took three days off after making the Paris semi-final and f eeli ng unwell, but has been practising under the eye of his assistant coach Jonas Bjorkman, although Amelie Mauresmo plans to return to his side for Wimbledon, deep into her pregnancy.
He discovered his first round opponent yesterday, qualifier Yen- Hsun Lu of Taiwan. Lu knocked Murray (right) out of the 2008 Olympics but the world No 62 was one of the Scot’s victims en route to winning the Wimbledon title in 2013.
Another by-product of the new status of Queen’s, down from a field of 56, is that British players are f ew and far between at t hi s more rarefied level of the tour.
Brydan Klein made it through to the last round of qualifying but was beaten yesterday by Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets.
In the absence of Kyle Edmund, who will return from a stomach-muscle injury next week, that means James Ward will be the only other GB singles representative.
Ward, who has been struggling with a foot injury, today plays powerhouse world No 8 Milos Raonic, who himself is on the way back after missing the French Open due to a minor foot operation.
It is an important outing for Ward, who needs to arrest a form slump and show his credentials for the Davis Cup quarter- f i nal versus France, taking place at this venue the week after Wimbledon. Denied a wildcard, British No 2 Aljaz Bedene has opted to play this week’s exhibition event in Liverpool. Wawrinka, who has a tough opener against Nick Kyrgios, resurfaced yesterday after his triumph in Paris and is another grateful for the extra week’s gap. He recapped his last few days, saying: ‘It was the normal Monday i n Paris, a l ot of press, pictures. ‘Tuesday I took a flight early morning t o do something with my sponsor in Zurich. Then had Wednesday to Friday spend- ing time with my family family, with my daughter. And doing some fitness.
‘I needed some time completely away. It’s always an up and down feeling after so much happening. So much emotion. When you calm down, you feel really tired.’
Asked if he ever expected to be a twice Grand Slam winner before last year’s Australian Open, he replied: ‘ No chance, f or me i t was too far, especially in this era of the game when you have the big four winning everything, so I was just honest with everybody and myself also.
‘I just didn’t expect to win in the French Open. I knew I was ready to have a big tournament, I told Magnus (Norman, his coach) I was playing well, with confidence to do something big.
‘I saw myself with a chance to beat every guy in every match, but to see and imagine myself winning the tournament, it was too far.’
As for the shorts, they are still an unlikely subject of fascination: ‘I still think at the end it’s a funny story, because when I started to wear them in Monte Carlo, there was a lot of bad press about them — even if I didn’t choose my colour.
‘Yonex (his racket and clothing sponsor) just give me what I have to wear. Now i t’s sold out — f or something that no one likes... it’s a strange world.’