Murray beats Mahut at Queens
Serving 15 aces during the match and coming back from a break down in both sets, Murray was watched by his team, including the newly re-appointed Ivan Lendl who agreed only last week to work with the world No. 2 for a second time.
Czech-born Lendl was by Murray’s side during the most successful period of his career when he won his two Grand Slam titles at the US Open and Wimbledon, as well as Olympic gold. The pair split in 2014.
Murray and Lendl practised for the first time in two years on Tuesday before the match where Murray faced the world No.51 Mahut, who was coming into the tournament following victory on the grass at the Ricoh Open in the Netherlands. Mahut is something of a grasscourt specialist, having won all four of his ATP titles on the green stuff, in the Netherlands in 2013 and 2015 and in Newport three years ago.
Having taken the first set Murray found himself 2-5 down in the second but rallied to push Mahut to a tiebreak, where he raced into a 3-0 lead, with Mahut taking a tumble on the grass in the third point of the tiebreak. Murray took the tiebreak for the loss of only one further point and after one hour and fifty minutes, having waited until 5.11pm to get on court.
“You know, I haven’t really hit many balls on the grass in the last few days, and the balls that I have hit there’s been very little, limited movement not being able to play any points really at all,” said Murray. “So to get a win against a player as good as him on grass, without loads of preparation, is a good win”.
Murray next plays British No.2 Aljaz Bedene who defeated Benoit Paire.
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