Andy Murray snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to become the first man with five titles at the AEGON Championships on Sunday afternoon. Murray at one point found himself trailing Milos Raonic by a set and 3-0, but he clawed back to triumph 6-7(5), 6-3 after two hours and 13 minutes.
Raonic held all 55 of his first 55 service games this week at Queen’s Club, so the final appeared to be all but over when the world No. 9 broke Murray early in set two. But he lost four of his last eight service games, a slide that began starting at 3-1 in the second. Murray broke on consecutive occasions in the middle frame of play and two additional breaks in the third were more than enough for the top-seeded Scot to get the job done.
Murray: “It was great. Obviously coming out here to win for a fifth time, I was really motivated. It was frustrating to be down a set and a break but I started to return well, and my serve worked very well the last couple of sets. I played some good stuff.”
Raonic: “Normally I’m pretty confident in a situation up a set and a break. He did a good job getting things going. I started to hesitate a little bit.”
Highlights:
At the Gerry Weber Open, a much more unlikely final matchup pit Alexander Zverev against fellow German Florian Mayer. Thirteen years older than his 19-year-old opponent, Mayer twice came within one point of rolling to a straight-set victory. But Zverev fought off two match points with clutch play on his own serve and ultimately forced a decider.
Not to be denied, Mayer got back on track in the third with a flat-out funky game that frustrated Zverev from start to finish. The world No. 192 needed just one break in the third to finish off Zverev 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in one hour and 55 minutes.
Mayer: “I would say it’s the biggest win in my career, to win a 500 event here in Germany on grass. If you see the list of champions in the past here and now my name is on the list, I cannot believe it. So it’s a special moment now for me.”
Zverev: “It was a positive week. I played really good tennis in all my matches. Against Roger (Federer) obviously it was a great highlight. Unfortunately, it had to end like this. But it happens. This is tennis. You can’t change it now. He played very well. He deserves to win today; he was the better player. It’s as simple as that.”
Highlights:
Murray looks hungry for the AELTC, and Zverv is starting to show the same kind of class and sportsmanship that Fed always has….that’s a good direction for him (and all of us!).