MURRAY’S PAIN IN THE GRASS
ANDY MURRAY admitted his bid to retain his Wimbledon title had suffered a “big blow” after crashing out of Queen’s to the world No.90.
It was Murray’s first match on grass this season and he said: “If I play like that, I certainly won’t win Wimbledon.”
Both times the world No.1 has won in the title in SW19 – in 2013 and 2015 - he first triumphed in W14.
But after appearing to rediscover his lost form in reaching the semi-finals of the French Open, the Scot was comprehensively outplayed by Jordan Thompson, who was a late callup to replace the injured Aljaz Bedene.
The Brit went down 7-6 6-2 in front of a stunned crowd at the Aegon Championships. He had last lost in west London in 2014.
Murray refused to blame his ‘lucky loser’ opponent coming in as a late replacement – or his pledge to donate his winnings to the Grenfell Tower appeal.
In scorching temperatures in West London, the Aussie was just too hot to handle.
But the French Open semifinalist said he will need to quickly shed his feet of clay be- fore beginning his defence of his Wimbledon title on July 3.
“Just before Wimbledon, it is a big blow for sure,” Murray said.
“Obviously this tournament has given me great preparation in the past and, when I have done well here, Wimbledon has tended to go pretty well too.
“It is not ideal but guys have in the past also gone in to Wimbledon having not won lots of matches. Novak (Djokovic) a number of times hasn’t played any warm-up tournaments and played very well there. There are no guarantees that I won’t do well at Wimbledon but it certainly would have helped to have had more matches.” The last time he lost his opening match here was in 2012 when he went on to reach the Wimbledon final. This early defeat will put further pressure on his No.1 position after a poor year by his high standards. And Murray, whose forehand badly mis-fired, said he will now con- sider playing grass-court exhibition matches next week before his biggest event of the year.
“I do think that a lot can change in a short period of time,” he said.
“And hopefully I get enough time on the court these next couple of weeks and work on some things, because I’m going to need to.”
The last time Murray failed to break his opponent’s serve was against Roger Federer in Cincinnatti in 2015 – 136 matches ago.
Thompson, who powered down 12 aces, said: “It is the biggest win of my career.”
And the Aussie (left, with Murray) said he targeted the forehand of the world No.1.
“I was trying to direct traffic to that wing,” he said.
No Brits have won through to the second round after defeats for James Ward, Cameron Norrie and Liam Broady.
Djokovic will be seeded to meet Murray in the Wimbledon final after Stan Wawrinka joined the cull of top names as he lost 7-6 7-5 to Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.
Last year’s Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic went out to Aussie wildcard Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6 7-6.