Day two: Draper, Murray and Harris headline British success, while Alcaraz began title defence with straight sets win
A bumper second day at the cinch Championships saw British tennis stars Andy Murray, Jack Draper and Billy Harris steal the headlines, while Carlos Alcaraz kicked off his title defence with a straight sets victory.
Former world No.1 Murray rolled back the years on what was his 1000th ATP tour-level match to edge Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought opening battle.
Despite the momentum resting with the Australian heading into the decider, the five-time cinch Championships titleholder was spurred on to an early break as he sprinted to a 3-0 lead. The Brit continued to serve with conviction, in comparison Popyrin who’s first serve dropped to just 39%, as Murray wrapped up one of the best wins of his season in an hour and 51 minutes.
Harris – who has strung together an impressive run of form on the grass so far – knocked out Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the second round of an ATP 500 for the first time.
The wild card entrant, who’s ranked 130 places below his Argentinian opponent, made a fast start in West London, as he edged a closely-fought opening set. Despite Etcheverry forcing himself back into the contest in the second, Harris re-gained his composure in the decider – breaking the world No.32 on his fourth break point before staving off three off his own to wrap up the biggest win of his career by ranking.
The man of the moment, Jack Draper kick-started his campaign with a straight sets victory after beating Mariano Navone 6-3, 6-2.
The newly crowned British No.1 broke the Argentinian clay court maestro four times to book his spot in the second round in just 54 minutes. Draper now sets up a blockbuster meeting against world No.2 Alcaraz on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Alcaraz extended his grass court win streak to 13 matches after earning a 6-1, 7-5 victory over world No.23 Francisco Cerundolo.
The Spaniard – who is competing in his first tournament since winning his third major title at the French Open – trailblazed to an early advantage after taking the opening set in just 30 minutes. However, the Argentine soon fought his way back into the contest in the second – breaking the three-time Grand Slam champion on his opening service game.
Just when it looked like we’d be going to a deciding set as Cerundolo stepped up to the baseline to serve it out, a late surge from the world No.2 saw him string together four games on the bounce to book his spot in the second round.
World No.30 Lorenzo Musetti showed great resilience to fight back to victory against last year’s runner-up Alex de Minaur, eventually winning 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. The Italian was broken four times in the opening set by the recently crowned s’Hertogenbosch winner, but soon found his rhythm in the final two sets to close out the win in two hours and three minutes.
Wins also came for former Rothesay International Eastbourne Taylor Fritz, 2023 semi-finalist Sebastian Korda, qualifier Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, Matteo Arnaldi, Tommy Paul and Alejandro Tabilo.
However, Dan Evans’ journey at the Queen’s Club was unfortunately cut short after the British No.3 was unfortuantely forced to retire in his opener against Brandon Nakashima due to injury.
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