Murray picks up where he left off with Lendl

squeezing in an early warm-up session of unusually long length and discernible intensity before the first of several rain delays in the day drove everyone inside. Once the match was under way, the 56-year-old Czech sat placidly at the end of what will become a familiar line-up of him, Jamie Delgado and fitness trainer Matt Little. He may have clapped his hands twice, there were a few nods and some hushed conversations with Delgado. While Murray had been resting most of last week, Mahut had been winning an ATP title in Holland. The Scot needed to break back from 2-3 down in the opening set and in a desperately tight tiebreak, saved a set point at 7-8 before clinching it on the fourth set point of his own, 10-8. The second set followed a similar pattern before he took the second tiebreak 7-1. Sharapova’s lawyers have pressed for a swift hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport to appeal against her two-year ban for taking meldonium. The result will be known by July 18 at the latest. ‘My views haven’t changed since March,’ said Murray on the former world No 1. ‘I do feel that if you are cheating and are caught gaining an advantage you have to be punished.’ Asked about her complaint that she did not know meldonium had become illegal, he said: ‘I don’t think that’s a valid excuse.’