London: Andy Murray’s preparation for Wimbledon suffered another jolt here Tuesday as he lost his first round match at the Queen’s club here.
Top seed Murray and five times champion Murray went down 6-7(4-7) 2-6 to Australian World No. 90 Jordan Thompson – a late call-up who only knew he was playing shortly before stepping on court against the defending champion.
Initially Murray had been scheduled to face fellow Britain Aljaz Bedene but 23-year-old ‘lucky loser’ Thompson stepped in after Bedene withdrew with a wrist injury.
Murray had lost only one match on grass since the summer of 2014 – to Roger Federer in the 2015 Wimbledon semifinals – but looked uncomfortable on the slick surface as the errors flowed from his racket, especially off the forehand.
Having taken a close first set Thompson, who reached the final of the Surbiton challenger event last week, raced through the second to the general surprise of the 10,000 crowd.
“Andy’s the World No.1 – I’ve looked up to him and that’s definitely the biggest win of my career. I took each point at a time. I didn’t expect it to be winning in straight sets,” he told ‘the BBC’.
“I was sitting around hoping to get a match. Here I am, I got in the draw and I was so lucky to be here. I don’t know if I can say my immediate thoughts,” he added.
Murray looked flat and admitted it was a ‘big blow’ in his build-up for Wimbledon where he will be aiming to defend the title he won for a second time last year.
“It has happened in the past where guys haven’t done well here and gone on to do well at Wimbledon,” said the Briton after the end of a 14-match winning streak on grass.
“There is no guarantee that I won’t do well at Wimbledon, but it certainly would have helped to have had more matches. He played better. I didn’t create loads of chances,” added Murray.
Triumphant return
Meanwhile Victoria Azarenka returned to the WTA circuit with a win over Risa Ozaki of Japan at the Mallorca Open. The Belarusian who had taken a year’s sabbatical due to the birth of her baby started her match Tuesday, but had to wait till Wednesday to achieve victory. Bad light stopped play with the score one-set all. However, Azarenka had to fight hard when the game resumed Wednesday and ultimately prevailed in a third set tie-breaker. Azarenka won 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(9-7).
Agencies
