BARRY WOOD
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Andy Murray won his first match since adding Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach, beating Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-4 in the second round of the Queen’s Club grass-court tournament on Wednesday.
“I was looking forward to getting back on the court,” Murray said. “I enjoy playing here. I love being back on the grass.
“I thought I was quite disciplined with my movement today. I moved pretty well. I wasn’t sliding about too much. Yeah, it was a good start.”
Top seed and Australian Open winner Stanislas Wawrinka also advanced into the third round when Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus retired with a right shoulder injury as the Swiss led 3-2.
There was victory too for 2011 finalist and fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who weathered a close first set before overwhelming Belgium’s David Goffin 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Since his loss to Roger Federer in the 2012 Wimbledon final, Murray has won 19 consecutive matches on grass and captured three titles, including the 2012 London Olympic gold at the All England Club, and Wimbledon and Queen’s last year.
Murray hired former top-ranked player and two-time major winner Mauresmo as his coach on Sunday, initially for the grass-court season. He has been without a coach since he parted ways with Ivan Lendl in March.
Hiring a female coach has generated a great deal of attention, and although he previously worked with his mother, Judy, for a long period, he admits that such a move at his level of the game was unusual.
“At first when I thought about it, it was obviously a consideration, because for a few years I haven’t worked with a woman,” he said.
“Now the decision has been made, it’s not something that I’m thinking about. It’s more about the qualities that she can bring that will help me and my tennis and my team as well. I hope it works out long term because I like her. She’s a good person. I hope it works out well.”
Murray was impressed with Mauresmo when they met, and saw the qualities she could bring.
“After I spoke to her the first time I just really liked her. She was calm. She asked a lot of questions. She listened. She listened a lot. I liked chatting to her, so then I decided to sit down and speak to her and had a good chat with her about tennis.
“This week, there’s not going to be any big changes in my game. I also wouldn’t expect any before Wimbledon. But we’ll definitely work on some things after the tournament is finished here.”
Ernests Gulbis, who reached his maiden Grand Slam semifinal at the French Open last week, fell to Kenny De Schepper of France 7-6 (3), 7-5.
“I like the grass,” Gulbis, the sixth seed from Latvia said. “But I never played well the first tournament. I always played decent in Wimbledon if I practiced well. So now I’m going to stay here, practice two weeks on grass. I’m going to be fully fine for Wimbledon.”
Lleyton Hewitt remains one victory short of Roger Federer’s record of 122 match wins on grass after being beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Feliciano Lopez.
Hewitt, a four-time champion at Queen’s, was broken once in each set and failed to earn a single break point against the Spaniard. It’s the first time the Australian has lost to Lopez in five meetings.
Hewitt had been bidding to become the first player to win Queen’s five times. He shares the record of four titles with Andy Roddick.
“I played a bit of a loose game the second game of the match,” he said. “Then, yeah, he served really well the whole match. He had a lot better rhythm today than he did yesterday in his first-round match. He hit his spots really well.”
Vasek Pospisil of Canada, Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, and Nicolas Mahut of France were beaten, but there were wins for eighth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine and Radek Stepanek.
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