Andy Murray lost in the opening round of the 2023 Cinch Championships to the seventh-seeded Alex de Minaur.
No player has even won more titles at the Queen's Club than the experienced Brit. He triumphed at the event five times in singles and also added one win in doubles. Coming into the ATP 500 tournament in 2023, Murray wanted to taste success again.
And it wouldn't be a surprise if he did. The 36-year-old was coming to the Queen's Club on a ten-match winning streak. Moreover, he entered the Top 40 for the first time in 5 years, and the fans were high on hope.
But the draw for the 2023 Cinch Championships wasn't really nice to Murray. Already in the first round, he played against the seventh-seeded Alex de Minaur who he never managed to beat on the ATP Tour before.
Yet, winning 20 of the last 21 sets he played spoke in Murray's favour, but the tiredness didn't. The five-time Queen's Club champion appeared to be really tired and after he didn't convert his first three break points in the second game of the match, things started going downhill.
De Minaur had his first chance to break in the third game, but Murray held. However, a couple of games later, the Brit couldn't do the same thing and with both players having a total of three break points in the first set, efficiency was crucial. The Australian was much better in that regard, using two of his three chances and winning the first set 6-3.
In the second set, it was a one-way traffic. Murray couldn't trouble De Minaur on his serve, and the Australian broke two more times to win the match 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 26 minutes to advance to the second round of the 2023 Cinch Championships, meeting Diego Schwartzman from Argentina.
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