Britain’s Andy Murray poses with the trophy after winning the final match against Croatia’s Marin Cilic for the Aegon Championships at the Queen’s Club in London, yesterday.
LONDON: Andy Murray was crowned king of Queen’s Club for the third time as the world number two roared back to defeat defending champion Marin Cilic 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in yesrerday’s final.
Murray was pushed hard by the Croatian fifth seed, but the US Open champion responded to the challenge with the kind of classy display that bodes well with Wimbledon just eight days away.
He picked up a cheque for £73,315 for his latest triumph at the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event, but more importantly his dominant week’s work served as the perfect preparation ahead of his latest bid to end Britain’s long wait for a male winner of the singles’ title at the All England Club.
The 26-year-old’s third successful Queen’s campaign in five years, following previous victories in 2009 and 2011, took his career haul of ATP Tour titles to 27 and ended his wait for a first tournament win since the Miami Masters in March.
However, Murray, who started the week concerned by his fitness after a lower back injury forced him to miss the French Open, will hope a first set tumble that left him briefly clutching his groin in pain proves nothing serious.
“It’s been extremely wet and I just slipped. I was a bit sore in the groin area, thankfully it wasn’t too bad,” Murray told the BBC.
“Marin’s one of the best grass-court players in the world. We had a lot of close matches and I was lucky to come through at the end because he was playing such good tennis.”
Cilic added: “Andy showed he’s a great fighter and congratulations to him for his win here.
“It was an extremely good week for me. I hope I can continue my good form and come back next year.”
Meanwhile, Daniela Hantuchova won the sixth title of her career and a battle of the generations which saw the defeat of the new golden girl in the Birmingham WTA final.
Many of the crowd came to see whether Donna Vekic, at 16 the youngest player in the world’s top 350, could win the Wimbledon warm-up event.
However after almost snatching the first set the teenager was beaten by an opponent nearly a decade and a half older.
The former world number five from Slovakia showed she still has remarkable resilience as she beat the sensational new girl from Croatia 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.
Hantuchova had spent fully 12 hours on court during a week in which she had suffered from an ankle injury and three times looked to be heading for defeat. But she was solid and punishing off the ground and steadier in the head than Vekic. Agencies
