Aegon Championships: Andy Murray confined to the indoor courts on damp first day

Paul Newman
Queen’s Club
Monday 13 June 2016 20:31 BST
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Andy Murray enjoys a joke with John McEnroe
Andy Murray enjoys a joke with John McEnroe

It was an encounter that the rain-soaked spectators here would have loved to witness, but barely a dozen people were watching from the gallery as Andy Murray joined forces with John McEnroe on an indoor court here on the first day of the Aegon Championships.

Before Murray began his hitting session with Milos Raonic, the Scot and the Canadian warmed up on court for a brief doubles exchange with members of their coaching teams. Murray lined up on one side of the net with McEnroe, who is helping Raonic for the duration of the grass-court season, while Raonic joined Jamie Delgado, Murray’s full-time coach.

Indoor practice could be the order of the day again here tomorrow. Rain severely curtailed the opening day’s programme and more bad weather is forecast.

Murray, who took five days off last week following his French Open exertions and did not start practising again until the weekend, might have little chance to find his feet on grass before what could be a very tricky test in his opening match here.

The world No 2’s first-round opponent is Nicolas Mahut, who won the fourth grass-court title of his career when he beat Gilles Muller 6-4, 6-4 in the rain-delayed final at ’s-Hertogenbosch. The Frenchman, who has now won the Dutch tournament three times, beat Murray in the first round here four years ago.

The final of the Stuttgart grass-court tournament, which was also delayed by a day because of the weather, was won by Dominic Thiem, who beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 to become the first player to win three titles on three different surfaces this year.

Rain halted play several times on the opening day of the Aegon Championships

The 22-year-old Austrian, who broke into the world’s top 10 for the first time last week after reaching the semi-finals of the French Open, won titles on clay in Buenos Aires and Nice and on hard courts in Acapulco. He has now won more matches (45) than any other player on the men’s tour this year.

Kohlschreiber made the better start on the resumption to win the tie-break at the end of the opening set, but Thiem quickly took command of the second set with an early break of serve. He needed only one break in the deciding set to secure his victory.

Kei Nishikori, the No 2 seed at this week’s Halle Open in Germany, started slowly in his opening match against Lucas Pouille before recovering to win 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.

Heather Watson got off to a winning start at the Aegon Classic at Edgbaston, beating Italy’s Camila Giorgi 6-4, 7-5. The Briton hit 11 aces and saved all six break points that she faced.

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