Andy Murray suffers first-round Queen's exit to Alex De Minaur in blow to Wimbledon seeding hopes
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Updated 21/06/2023 at 08:08 GMT
Andy Murray's hopes of being seeded for Wimbledon took a major blow when he lost 6-3 6-1 to Alex De Minaur in the first round at Queen's. The 36-year-old needed ranking points to have a chance of moving up the rankings to get a top-32 spot, but was well beaten as his 10-match winning run ended. Murray won back-to-back Challenger tournaments in Surbiton and Nottingham before Queen's.
Murray's fine form on grass ends abruptly at hands of De Minaur
Five-time Queen’s champion Andy Murray suffered a 6-3 6-1 first-round exit to Alex De Minaur in a bitter blow to the 36-year-old’s hopes of earning a Wimbledon seeding.
Murray headed to London on the back of a 10-match winning run on grass that saw him claim Challenger titles in Surbiton and Nottingham.
But he was second best throughout against the Australian seventh seed, who extended his head-to-head superiority over the Scot to 4-0.
Murray rose to No. 38 in the ATP rankings after his success in Nottingham, edging closer to a top-32 spot that would make him a seed for Wimbledon, but his immediate Queen’s exit is a huge setback to that ambition.
De Minaur will face Diego Schwartzman in the second round.
"I don't want to overanalyse," said the 36-year-old.
"It's easy to overreact. I lost to a good player.
"It's obviously not the same level of opponents, but I won Nottingham last week without dropping a set. I only lost one set in Surbiton.
"I was holding serve very comfortably, moving well, hitting the ball good. There are a lot of positive signs there."
Murray made a promising start, holding the opening game before forcing De Minaur to save three break points as he applied pressure for an early breakthrough.
The Scot swung his racket in frustration when he double-faulted to surrender break point in the following game from 30-0 up, but he got out of trouble with some big serving.
De Minaur eventually earned the break in game five, seizing his first opportunity when a Murray backhand flew wide.
Murray was eventually left serving to stay in the set and was broken once again, shanking a forehand long to end a forgettable opener in 47 minutes.
Murray continued to struggle to pressure De Minaur’s serve in the second set and found himself a break down once again at 3-1, when the Aussie hit a backhand cross-court winner on the first of three break points.
De Minaur earned a double-break at the fourth time of asking to go 5-1 up, coming to the net to dispatch a volley, leaving the three-time Grand Slam winner shaking his head on his chair at the change of ends as his opponent prepared to serve for the match.
Murray saved three match points on De Minaur's serve, but could do nothing about the fourth.
Meanwhile, Andy Roddick believes the defeat will do little to affect Murray's chances of success at Wimbledon, and explained back-to-back wins at Surbiton and Nottingham have likely taken their toll.
"I don't think it changes too much," said Roddick in quotes from the Tennis Channel.
"[Playing] that many matches in two weeks, winning back-to-back titles, is tough when you have two good hips. I can only imagine it's extra challenging when you have one good hip like Andy Murray," Roddick said.
The 2003 US Open champion also highlighted the subtle differences between the two grass-court surfaces at Queen's and Wimbledon.
"Andy compared the surface that he was playing on last week at the Challenger to Wimbledon, which to my mind means, maybe it's a little bit slower. So, even though it's the same surface, when you look at it, like grass is grass, it doesn't always work that way. This is a faster surface."
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