Murray reaches third round, Hewitt cruises
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, June 14, 2013
Andy Murray avenged last year's embarrassing Queen's Club exit against Nicolas Mahut as the world number two picked up a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory in his rain delayed second-round clash yesterday in London.
Murray had suffered a shock defeat against Mahut at the same stage of the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event 12 months ago, but the US Open champion's dominant display ensured there would be no repeat.
The 26-year-old will have little time to savor his win as he was scheduled to return to court later in the day to face Australia's Marinko Matosevic in the last 16 as the tournament catches up following several days of bad weather.
The grueling schedule will be a significant test for two-time Queen's champion Murray, who missed the recent French Open after aggravating a recurring lower back injury in Rome, Italy.
This was the Scot's first competitive action for a month, but he showed few signs of rust despite the slippery conditions on the grass courts in west London.
"The back felt great, especially with the conditions we have had," Murray told the BBC.
"It is very cold and I'm sure, as anyone who has had a back problem knows, that's not good. But even with all the stopping and starting it feels great."
Lleyton Hewitt continued his giant-killing run as the Australian moved into the quarterfinals with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 victory over American sixth seed Sam Querrey.
Hewitt is a four-time champion at the pre-Wimbledon warm-up event, but thoughts of a record fifth crown were some way from the former world number one's thoughts when he arrived at the start of the week.
The 32-year-old is well into the twilight of his career and his lowly 82nd position in the world rankings reflects that diminished status.
Berdych, Tsonga advance
But the former Wimbledon champion has always thrived on grass and he produced one of his best performances of 2013 to brush aside the highly-regarded Grigor Dimitrov in the second round before cutting big-serving Querrey down to size yesterday.
Hewitt will face former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro or British wildcard Daniel Evans in the last eight.
Czech second-seed Tomas Berdych maintained his strong start to the tournament as he progressed to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Slovenian 16th seed Grega Zemlja.
World number six Berdych next faces defending champion Marin Cilic or Feliciano Lopez.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the French fourth seed, won his delayed second round tie against compatriot Eduoard Roger-Vasselin.
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