Aegon Championships: Andy Murray on the brink of fifth Queen's Club title

The Scot defeated Marin Cilic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the best match of the tournament so far

Murray has played in four previous Queen's finals and won them all (Getty)

The cameras may focus as much on the coaches as on the players when Andy Murray meets Milos Raonic here on Sunday in the final of the Aegon Championships. As if there were not enough interest in Murray’s attempt to become the first player to win this historic title five times, the fact that Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe will be in opposing camps will add extra spice to the occasion.

Just a month ago the prospect of such a meeting between two of the game’s legends would have been all but unthinkable, but within days of Raonic recruiting McEnroe to his coaching team for the grass-court season Murray announced that he would be working with Lendl again after a break of more than two years.

This week’s tournament has been the first that Raonic and Murray have played since making those changes. After the most difficult of weeks, with bad weather seriously disrupting the programme, the event could hardly have wished for a better final.

Raonic, who made the quarter-finals in his only previous visit here last year, reached his first grass-court final with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Australia’s Bernard Tomic after Murray had beaten Marin Cilic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the best match of the tournament so far.

Murray has played in four previous finals here and won them all. Seven other players – Major Ritchie, Anthony Wilding, Roy Emerson, McEnroe, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick – can match the Scot’s achievement in winning the title four times but he is aiming to become the first to claim it for a fifth time.

I’m sure the media will make a big deal of it, but for me as a player it’s not that interesting.

&#13; <p>Andy Murray on the clash of the two coaches, Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe</p>&#13;

“It would mean a lot,” Murray said. “A lot of great players have played here over the years. Winning any tournament is hard, but this one in particular has always got a very strong field. It’s a tough event to win.”

He added: “To guarantee myself five matches again here is great, after quite a limited preparation. Again this event has worked out extremely well for me in terms of preparing and getting enough matches in for Wimbledon.”

Murray lost three of his first five matches against Raonic but will be seeking a fifth successive victory over the world No 9 tomorrow. The 6ft 5in Canadian, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals two years ago, took only two games off Murray in their most recent meeting on clay in Monte Carlo two months ago but ran the world No 2 much closer at the Australian Open in January.

Raonic, who has one of the best serves in the men’s game and is being encouraged by McEnroe to put more faith in his volleying, led by two sets to one in Melbourne but faded after suffering a groin injury.

Murray said he was not particularly interested in the Lendl-McEnroe dimension. “I’m not playing John and Ivan is not on my side of the court,” he said. “They can’t serve for us at an important moment and they can’t hit a return for us on break point. That comes down to the player. I’m sure the media will make a big deal of it, but for me as a player it’s not that interesting.”

The world No 2’s semi-final victory was a high-quality contest. Cilic, a former champion here, is a fine grass-court player and there were periods, especially in the second set, when his attacking play and charges into the net had Murray in retreat. For a big man the 6ft 6in Croatian also has a good touch, which he showed with some deft drop shots and clever use of angles.

In Murray, nevertheless, the world No 13 was facing a master of his craft. Murray hit some superb cross-court forehands in particular and served well throughout, hitting 14 aces to Cilic’s eight. In the third set Murray won all 17 points played on his first serve and dropped just two on his second.

McEnroe coaches Raonic, Murray's opponent for this year's final (Getty)

Murray made the first break in the third game. When Cilic served at 3-5 he went 0-40 down under a barrage of blistering returns before being beaten by a splendid forehand cross-court pass.

The Croatian, nevertheless, upped his tempo in the second set and broke serve in the seventh game with some bold attacking play. Having recovered from 0-40 down in the following game he served out to level the match.

Murray, nevertheless, repeated his performance of the previous day, when he immediately took control of the decider after Kyle Edmund had won the second set. The Scot quickly went 3-0 up, had two match points when Cilic served at 2-5 and secured victory in the following game with two successive aces.

“I think I started moving a bit better today,” Murray said afterwards. “I think I was more comfortable underfoot and then when that’s the case, when I was on the run, I wasn’t worrying about falling. I was thinking just purely about hitting the ball and getting good contact on it.

“On the grass courts when you are pushed that way, if you can hit the ball clean and big cross-court, you can rush your opponent a little bit. I got a bit of success with that today.”

Raonic needed just 62 minutes to beat Tomic, who had only one break point. The Canadian has won all 47 of his service games this week and faced only seven break points.

Hewitt, Tomic’s Davis Cup captain, is to play in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon. The 2002 singles champion at the All England Club said he was retiring after this year’s Australian Open but has accepted a wild card into the doubles alongside Jordan Thompson. Britain’s Brydan Klein has been added to the wild card recipients in the men’s singles at Wimbledon.

At the Halle Open in Germany 19-year-old Alexander Zverev became the youngest player to beat Roger Federer since Rafael Nadal defeated the Swiss at the 2005 French Open. Zverev, one of the best among the new generation of players breaking through, won their semi-final 7-6, 5-7, 6-3. He will play in an all-German final tomorrow after Florian Mayer surprised Dominic Thiem, beating the Austrian 6-3, 6-4.

Madison Keys will break into the world’s top 10 following her 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro in the semi-finals of the Aegon Classic at Edgbaston. She is the first American woman to reach the top 10 since Serena Williams 17 years ago. In tomorrow’s final Keys will face the Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova, who beat Coco Vandeweghe 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.