Andy Murray bows out of Queen’s and left to wait for Wimbledon seeding

Andy Murray’s hopes of being seeded at Wimbledon came to a bitter, abrupt end in his opening match at Queen’s Club as the five-time champion was soundly defeated 6-3, 6-1 by Alex de Minaur in the first round.

Murray had arrived in west London with high expectations having established some positive form on grass. After skipping the French Open, he opted to drop down to ATP Challenger level and competed at events in Surbiton and Nottingham, comfortably winning both tournaments and compiling a 10-match winning run.

However, he looked laboured from the beginning against the Australian seventh seed, spraying unforced errors and moving timidly as De Minaur smothered him with consistent aggression. Murray refused to blame his defeat on his intense schedule as he competed for a third successive week. “I felt OK going into the match. Just didn’t play very well,” he said.

Currently ranked 38th, Murray needed a quarter-final at Queen’s Club to give himself a solid chance of being a top-32 seed at Wimbledon and ensure he could avoid a high seed in the first two rounds. He will instead have to wait to see what the draw produces for him next Friday.

“Obviously after today, you know, it’s easy to overreact,” Murray said. “Well, no, I lost to a good player and it was obviously very comfortable, but at the same time, over the last couple of weeks, yes, it’s obviously not the same level of opponents, but I won the tournament last week without dropping a set. I only lost one set in Surbiton. Was holding serve very comfortably. Was moving well, hitting the ball good. There is a lot of positive signs there.”

Eleven days since his tense, anticlimactic semi-final defeat against Novak Djokovic in the French Open, Carlos Alcaraz looked ahead to