Murray squeezes through at Queen’s
ANDY MURRAY admitted he was given a tough test after opening the defence of his Aegon Championship title with a hard-fought victory over Ivan Navarro at Queen’s Club.
Murray, considered as one of the best grass court tacticians in the game, was given a thorough early season workout by Spaniard’s effective serve-and-volley game before eventually coming through 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
“It isn’t what I expected from a Spaniard, having a player come forward to the net,” said Murray, who now takes on Mardy Fish or Santiago Giraldo in the third round.
“I haven’t played a serve-volleyer this year so it was tricky but I started returning it well and we had some good rallies and I made some good lobs and passing shots.
“I thought I moved pretty well and I hit the ball well.”
Earlier, fellow Briton Alex Bogdanovic crashed out after suffering a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 first-round defeat to Bulgarian wildcard Grigor Dimitrov, while sixth seed Gael Monfils became the tournament’s first high-profile casualty after going down 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2 to German Rainer Schuttler.