FRENCH OPEN SEMIFINALISTS MURRAY, GULBIS RIGHT BACK IN ACTION AT QUEEN’S CLUB BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 7th June 2014

FRENCH OPEN SEMIFINALISTS MURRAY, GULBIS RIGHT BACK IN ACTION AT QUEEN'S CLUB BY RICKY DIMON |

Photo by Francisco Resendiz.

Andy Murray and Ernests Gulbis are part of another outstanding field at the Queen’s Club’s Aegon Championships, which begin on Monday. They are coming off semifinal showings at the French Open, where Murray and Gulbis lost to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, respectively.

Murray survived a pair of five-setters before getting clobbered by Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 on Friday. Gulbis knocked out Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych on the way to his first-ever Grand Slam semi before bowing out to Djokovic in four sets.

“I never want to say, ‘forget about matches like this,’ but obviously the grass-court season starts in a couple of days and I need to switch my mind to that,” Murray explained in his post-match press conference after the loss to Nadal. “I think going onto the grass, you know, in some ways will help me. I have a lot of good memories from the grass-court season over the last couple of years. I hope I can play some good tennis.”

Photo by Francisco Resendiz.

Murray won both Queen’s Club and Wimbledon last summer, but he will be hard-pressed to capture the first of those two legs for a second straight time because, as always, Queen’s Club boasts one of the best 250-point fields of the season. This year’s installment also features top two seeds Stan Wawrinka and Tomas Berdych, plus Grigor Dimitrov, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and 2012 champion Marin Cilic.

Murray may have found himself in a slightly more difficult half of the draw, along with Gulbis and Berdych. The bottom half also includes Kevin Anderson, Feliciano Lopez, Radek Stepanek, and Lleyton Hewitt. Murray could face Anderson or Jurgen Melzer in the quarters, while Berdych and Gulbis are on a collision course for a rematch of their French Open quarterfinal–dominated by Gulbis in straight sets.

Wawrinka is in a top quarter with Tsonga, Cilic, and Jeremy Chardy. Cilic famously won the 2012 title via a David Nalbandian default for kicking a linesperson. The Croat finished runner-up to Murray at this event last summer. The second quarter of the bracket, arguably the weakest, features Dimitrov, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Dmitry Tursunov, and 2010 Wimbledon marathon man Nicolas Mahut.

Topics: AEGON Championships, Andy Murray, Ernests Gulbis, French Open, Jeremy Chardy, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic, Queen's Club, Rafael Nadal, Ricky Dimon, Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis

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10sBalls_com says:

June 7, 2014 at 1:16 pm

FRENCH OPEN SEMIFINALISTS MURRAY, GULBIS RIGHT BACK IN ACTION AT QUEEN’S CLUB BY RICKY DIMON (@RD_Tennistalk) – http://t.co/hBpHUvyrlt
RD_Tennistalk says:

June 7, 2014 at 1:30 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: FRENCH OPEN SEMIFINALISTS MURRAY, GULBIS RIGHT BACK IN ACTION AT QUEEN’S CLUB BY RICKY DIMON (@RD_Tennistalk) – http://t…