The French Open title once again eluded Andy Murray, but he has to be feeling relieved about the state of his game heading into more favorable part of the season for him: grass.
After slumping through the first few months of the 2017 campaign, Murray heated up on his least favorite surface with a semifinal run at Roland Garros. The top-ranked Scot beat Juan Martin Del Potro and Kei Nishikori in the process before bowing out in five sets at the hands of eventual runner-up Stan Wawrinka.
Now Murray moves to the green stuff, and nowhere has he been more dominant throughout his career than at the AEGON Championships. Queen’s Club is the site of five of Murray’s 45 titles, making him the all-time leader in that category at this tournament. He is 30-5 lifetime and 10-0 in his last 10 matches (wins in 2015 and 2016).
The No. 1 seed’s draw will not make title No. 6 easy. He could have to get past Sam Querrey and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga simply to reach the semis, where Nick Kyrgios, Marin Cilic, or John Isner may be waiting.
Every one of the top four seeds, in fact, has a tough road. The fourth-seeded Cilic is going up against John Isner right off the bat, the second-seeded Wawrinka is facing Feliciano Lopez in round one, and third-seeded Milos Raonic is in a section of the bracket that also includes former Wimbledon semifinalist Grigor Dimitrov and grass-court wizard Nicolas Mahut.
Quarterfinal predictions: Andy Murray over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nick Kyrgios over Marin Cilic, Milos Raonic over Grigor Dimitrov, and Feliciano Lopez over Kyle Edmund
Semifinals: Murray over Kyrgios and Raonic over Lopez
Final: Murray over Raonic
[polldaddy poll=9770924]
who ya got?
Stan over Andy. Who’s everyone got for Wimbledon?
I’ll take the chalk and pick Murray to win this. Olly, Stan doesn’t get up for these tournaments especially on grass. Coming off his loss in the French final, I see him with an early exit.
Semi finals…Andy over Bratty Nick,Milos over wawa..
Final..Andy over Milos in 2 sets…
MA,
I like your picks! I think Andy is going to win this. He’s getting back to really good form now. Just in time.
Nny!…Now,with nick withdrew maybe Johnson/isner/young will meet with Andy in Semis…
Btw Nny..u didn’t join TDL this week?I miss u there…
Another game for Milosh!!!!
(over Andy)
QF:
Murray over Muller
Kyrgios over Isner
Raonic over Harrison
Wawrinka over Edmund
SF:
Murray over Kyrgios
Raonic over Wawrinka
Final:
Murray over Raonic
Oh Benny, the QFinalists that you predicted, only one left in the draw after R1; i.e. only Muller left!
Kyrgios just withdrew after losing the first set TB to Young. They said he flipped and hurt his hip.
I meant to say slipped and hurt his hip, not flipped! *
Oh really Nny?
Yes, Kyrgios withdrew yet again with an injured hip after slipping and falling on the grass. It seems to be one thing after another with him. I hope he will be okay for Wimby.
KYRGIOS NO. First Goffin now Nick. His fall looked awful.
It is really disappointing that Curious got injured again.Hope he is ok by Wimbledon.
@stu_fraser: “Stan Wawrinka’s first-round defeat at Queens means that Novak Djokovic will be second seed at Wimbledon.”
@stu_fraser: “Two wins in Halle for Federer will guarantee him a top-four seeding, avoiding potential Wimbledon quarterfinals vs Murray/Dkokovic/Nadal”
@stu_fraser: “Next week’s performances do not affect seedings”
C’mon Muzza, wake up!
What is going on with Murray? Losing the first set to Thompson? Thompson up a break in the second set?
With Murray’s record at this event, getting knocked out early would be quite the shocker.
Well Thompson broke again. He will serve for the match. Didn’t see this one coming.
I cannot believe this.
I cannot believe this.
I cannot believe this.
What is wrong with Muzza? This is not good. In straight sets and all………….I am in shock…….
What the hell just happened??
This gives me a bad feeling about Rafa’s chances on slick grass he hasn’t played on……I hope I am just being paranoid…..
My Bracket totally ruined now!!…1st Nick the Bratty,then Milos the Crappy and now Andy the Shockey!..Waaaaaaa!!!
I’m so glad Rafa skipped Queens. He certainly won’t have enough time to adapt to grass if he plays there and may also lose in first match there.
I do feel those who went deep at RG won’t do well at Queens. Stan seemed to have knee issue; Murray after that long grinding SF at RG didn’t seem to adapt that well to grass so soon. To be fair,both their opponents were playing good grass court tennis.
As for Raonic, his opponent Kokki was just a little bit quicker, so the match was tight and Raonic was being narrowly edged out.
Let’s see how Cilic handles Isner’s big serve on grass. Hopefully Cilic can win.
Rafa’s time working on his grass game is far more productive than coming to Queens half baked.
I agree. He can work at his grass game at his very own private pace and in good weather 😉
Certainly preferable to uncertain scheduling.
I wonder if he has a competent hitting partner at the grass courts of Mallorca.
When you think that Rafa won RG, Queens and Wimbledon in 2008, you have to take your hat off to him. In those days, Queens started immediately after RG.
Yeah, that’s how good Rafa was during his heydays! So far only Fed managed something like Rafa, i.e. at least reached final at RG and Wimbledon plus winning one grass court warm up in between – in 2006, 2008, but Fed did not win all three events one after another.
The results mean that Roger and Rafa will be seeded 3 and 4 at Wimby – Roger probably 3 because I assume that he will do well in Halle and therefore surpass Rafa. But that doesn’t matter a great deal. They will definitely be in opposite halfs. If Rafa ends up in Novak’s or Andy’s half doesn’t seem to matter a great deal right now, since they’re both in a slump, although I think that Andy might still gather some steam if he survives the first few rounds.
Rafa knew apparently what he was doing when he skipped Queens 😉
It doesn’t matter how much steam Murray gathers, he has trouble beating an in-form Rafa on any surface.
And yes, Cilic won his match against Isner; unbelievable serves and returns by him.
I hope he wins here at Queens, now that Murray is out.
The top 3 seeds are out. Murray played with no passion at all. He finds it difficult to go up a gear against lower ranked players, I don’t know why.
Rafa assured of top 4 seeding. Fed needs to win just 2 matches in halle to get to top 4 seed.
If Fed gets top 4 it will be like old times, except that the seedings will be the wrong way round with Murray 1st not 4th. 😉
It’s good news that Rafa will be in the top four. Fed has his seeding in his own hands.
It was a good decision for Rafa to skip Queens. Top three seeds out already.
Rafa has a real opportunity to gain points at Wimby. I hope his preparation in Mallorca is going well.
Murray getting knocked out early was a shocker, given his record there. He won’t have much match play before Wimby.
Stan is a question mark with his knee. Novak still a big question mark. Murray looked to be getting back to form at RG, but still some doubts.
So, Muzza and his band-mate, Nole, are both in a funk while Rafa and his band-mate, Fed, are twirling in the winners’ circle. Something’s going on with the Universe…………….@Sanju, you’re the resident Shaman, tell us!
ATP Rankings with Wimbledon points off:
1. Murray 7390
2. Nadal 7285
3. Wawrinka 6130
These three can end Wimby as #1. Djoko in with a shout as well…….
We will all swallow our false teeth if Andy defends his Wimby title but it’s highly unlikely.