High five Andy!
Wimbledon boost as Murray makes history at Queen’s
ANDY MURRAY created history yesterday — and gave himself the best possible confidence boost ahead of Wimbledon — by clinching a record fifth Aegon Championships title at Queen’s Club.
Under the watchful eye of coach Ivan Lendl, the Scot had to bounce back after losing the first set and finding himself 3-0 down in the second to beat big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic 6-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Murray has now reached four finals in a row — in Madrid, Rome, the French Open in Paris and at Queen’s — and said: ‘I probably haven’t done that before, so it’s a sign things are going in the right direction these past few months. I need to try to keep that up between now and the end of the year.’
This being the battle of the so-called ‘supercoaches’, there was much scrutiny on ivan Lendl’s courtside absence from the presentation ceremony after Andy Murray’s record fifth Aegon Championships title.
it turned out that it was nothing more than the 56-year-old Czech needing to urgently answer a call of nature after sitting through a two-and-a-quarter hour final at Queen’s Club.
And some final it was, the best of the five that the 29-year-old scot has won. he hauled himself back from the abyss of 0-3 in the second set to beat the hugely impressive Milos Raonic 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 and lift the giant trophy.
By then Lendl was back, peering down from the balcony after his abrupt departure from the box, what might be deemed a 22nd career win over John McEnroe safely banked.
in fact the quality of the match reduced the Lendl vs McEnroe subplot to a trivial sideshow.
About the most interesting thing McEnroe did was shuffle in his seat and take his sunglasses on and off, although he was positively animated compared to the sphinxlike Lendl. he did occasionally stir from his default slump position, but that was usually just to take a slug from his water bottle.
Afterwards McEnroe made a detour from his journey back to the locker room to specifically congratulate Jamie Delgado, Murray’s other coach. ‘Good job there,’ he said, offering his hand.
But this was, rightly, about the two players on the court, as Murray always said it would be. it was an outstanding display of grass-court tennis that could only whet the appetite for the big fortnight starting a week today.
A week which began with the sudden announcement that Lendl and Murray were friends reunited ended with further evidence that the scot remains, by some distance, the world’s second best player, in a league of his own behind Novak Djokovic.
his last four tournaments, going back to early May, have seen him reach the final of the Madrid Open, win the italian Open, make the final at Roland Garros and now win again in west London.
The only players he has lost to since the spring are Rafael Nadal and the dreaded Djokovic — it is his best run of form ever at highcalibre tournaments.
he will be at the All England Club today for practice then plans to take a complete day off tomorrow. This was sorted out last night, with Murray reiterating how he appreciates Lendl’s approach.
‘i like that it’s not concentrating too much on the win today,’ said Murray. ‘it’s like “Great, now what do we do tomorrow? What do we do to get better in the next few days to put myself in a better position for Wimbledon?”
‘he was definitely happy with this week, with the way i fought and played in the big moments when i had pretty much zero preparation for this event. i have enjoyed having him back and next week is a good one, spending more time together on court.’
The only aspect of this week to worry him, which endured to the end, was Murray’s habit of not playing his best until he ran into difficulties. The very best players may yet punish him more severely.
‘You don’t want to get yourself in tough situations, but when i needed to this week i stepped up and played my best tennis. That’s a good sign and maybe with a little bit more practice and preparation i won’t give my opponents those opportunities.’
it was a triumphant Father’s Day — Murray’s first as a parent — and he celebrated with four-month-old daughter sophia in the players’ lounge afterwards.
The victory came thanks to him finally unravelling not just the monster Raonic serve, but his impressively rounded game. There were some brilliant points early on but neither could breach other’s serve. The Canadian has been told to impose himself more on the net by McEnroe and he did that admirably. The tiebreak was decided by a brilliant return of serve at 6-5.
Raonic broke early in the second set, but in the key game of the match at 1-3 Murray successfully challenged twice with hawk-Eye and then broke back with a blistering backhand return-ofserve winner. Queen’s Club came to its feet. From then on Murray was transformed, and if Raonic should reproach himself for anything it is that he shrunk away from his gameplan of being aggressive and coming forward. The malaise spread to his serve and the aces started to dry up.
having held serve for 55 consecutive games since arriving at Queen’s he was broken three times out of four, which speaks to Murray’s sublime returning. Raonic was broken again at the death, taking the scot ahead of the likes of McEnroe, Boris Becker and Roy Emerson on five Queen’s titles.
Novak Djokovic was due to arrive in London yesterday. he is clearly the favourite for Wimbledon but will know that an incredible fifth consecutive Grand slam title is anything but a formality.