Reigning champion Sam Querrey was back in the groove at Queen’s as the American began his defense of the grass-court title with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Japan’s Kei Nishikori on Monday.
Querrey was the surprise winner of Queen’s last year after beating Mardy Fish in an all-US final and the big-serving 13th seed marked his return to the annual Wimbledon warm-up event with a convincing first-round victory.
Nishikori is regarded as one of the rising stars of the ATP Tour after reaching a career-high ranking of 46 last month, but the 21-year-old from Shimane was unable to cause an upset on the lush lawns of west London as Querrey advanced to a second round meeting with Germany’s Rainer Schuettler, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over qualifier Bobby Reynolds of the US.
Photo: Reuters
“It’s good to come here as defending champion. You feel a bit of extra pressure, but it’s a nice feeling,” Querrey said.
Querrey’s thudding serves and booming ground-strokes make the 23-year-old a daunting prospect on grass and he was quickly into his stride as he broke Nishikori in the second game of the match.
Nishikori wasted a golden opportunity to hit straight back as Querrey saved five break points to hold serve in the next game. That proved decisive as Querrey easily served out the set.
Nishikori was constantly under pressure and had to save three break points early in the second set. That only postponed the inevitable and Querrey broke for a 5-4 lead, before finishing off the match in emphatic fashion.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Feliciano Lopez defeated Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a second-round clash with four-time champion Andy Roddick.
Lopez shocked world No. 1 Rafael Nadal during an impressive run to the semi-finals at Queen’s last year and the Spaniard was too strong for Tursunov as he won a tight first-set tiebreak, before running away with the second set.
Andy Murray looks set to take part in the event after practicing for more than two hours at the club as the world No. 4 tested out the ankle ligament injury he suffered at the French Open.
British No. 1 Murray, one of the eight top seeds given a bye into the second round, is keen to get time on grass ahead of Wimbledon and said: “It’s definitely better than it was originally.”
“It was a bit sore when it happened and playing matches on it didn’t necessarily help too much, but it should be OK,” the Scot said.
Nadal, the top seed at Queen’s, was also on the club’s practice courts on Monday just 24 hours after beating Roger Federer in the French Open final.
Wimbledon marathon man Nicolas Mahut sprinted into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over British wild-card Oliver Golding.
Former Queen’s runner-up Mahut lost the longest match in tennis history against John Isner of the US at Wimbledon last year in an epic encounter that lasted 11 hours and was spread over three days, but Mahut didn’t hang around this time as the Frenchman easily dismissed Golding to set up a clash against seventh seed Fernando Verdasco.
French 10th seed Michael Llodra cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win against Jaroslav Pospisil.
Thomaz Bellucci, the Brazilian 11th seed, fought back to beat Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-2.
Germany’s Michael Berrer beat wild-card Ryan Harrison of the US 7-6 (9/7), 2-6, 7-5 to earn a meeting with French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
French qualifier Arnaud Clement will play eighth seed Marin Cilic after he beat compatriot Benoit Paire 7-5, 6-3.
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