World number four Andy Murray is adamant the shock end of his reign as Queen’s champion won’t damage his chances of winning Wimbledon. Murray had won the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event at Queen’s Club twice in the last three years and he arrived in west London hoping for another extended run on the grass courts.
But the Scot, who received a first round bye as the top seed, produced an error-strewn display that allowed France’s Nicolas Mahut to complete a 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/1) secound round victory on Wednesday. Mahut, who was the runner-up at Queen’s in 2007, is a solid grass-court performer and his confidence is sky high after beating former world number one Andy Roddick at the French Open last month.
But Murray would still have expected to see off a player 61 places below him in the world rankings. It was the worst possible preparation for his latest assault on the Wimbledon title, but Murray, who has struggled with a back injury in recent weeks, remains confident he will be able to mount a strong challenge at the All England Club. “Oh, it’s panic stations. I’ve just got no chance to be ready for Wimbledon now. It’s going to be impossible,” he said with a wry smile before providing a serious assessment of his form.
“These result often happens. (Novak) Djokovic isn’t playing the next two weeks, so there is no need for me to panic,” he said. “I don’t think it all went wrong. It was a very close match and it takes a bit of time to adjust to the grass courts. “The transition to grass isn’t normally too bad, but I did struggle with my movement especially early on in the match. That’s something that I will need to improve.
“I just need a few more days to get my movement right, and then I’ll play better.” Murray, who suggested it was unlikely he would make a late entry into next week’s tournament at Eastbourne, also hit back at criticism from Tommy Haas. The German veteran this week claimed the British number one exaggerates injuries on court in a bid to change the momentum of matches if he isn’t playing well. Haas’s comments came just days after former Wimbledon women’s champion Virginia Wade described Murray as a “drama queen” when he suffered a back injury but recovered quickly to beat Jarkko Nieminen at the French Open.
“In the time I have been on tour I’ve been called many, many things from my personality not being exciting enough. I have been called boring. It was said I was unfit, lazy, fake injuries. All sorts,” Murray said.