By India Today Sports Desk: 2-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray played down his opening-round defeat to Alex de Minaur at the Queen's Club, an ATP 500 tune-up event in the lead-up to the grass-court Grand Slam. Murray's brilliant run on grass came to an end as he was ousted by the Australian after a straight-sets defeat 3-6, 1-6.
The 5-time Queen's champion had headed into Queen's, one of the premier events on grass in the build-up to Wimbledon, with two back-to-back challenger titles in Nottingham and Surbiton.
Murray, however, was no match for 7th seed Alex de Minaur, who set-up a second-round clash with Diego Schwartzmann. However, Murray said he will take a lot of positives from his run on grass this season and not over-analyse the Queen's Club defeat. The former World No. 1 had raised expectations of an improved showing at Wimbledon, which he has won twice.
"Obviously after today, it's easy to overreact. I lost to a good player and it was obviously very comfortable. But at the same time, over the past couple of weeks, yes, it's obviously not the same level of opponents, but I won the [Nottingham Challenger] last week without dropping a set," Murray said.
“I only lost one set in Surbiton. Was holding serve very comfortably. Was moving well, hitting the ball well. There are a lot of positive signs there," he added.
Murray had the opportunity to get seeded at Wimbledon if he had a deep run at the Queen's Club. However, the 2-time champion will have do the hard yards at the major after the early exit from Queen's.
I CAN DO BETTER: MURRAY
Murray said he will take a step back, recharge and look to head to Wimbledon, starting July 3, with a lot of energy and hope.
"Just recharge a little bit, and then go to work on my game,” Murray said.
“I don't want to overanalyse. Today [there are] definitely some things I can do better, but at the same time, I have done lots of good things over the last couple of weeks as well. I want to keep going in that direction," he added.
Murray will celebrate the 10th anniversary of his first Wimbledon win this year. Murray, who has had to deal with persistent hip injury concerns, has not gone past the 3rd-round since he reached the quarter-final in 2017. Murray won the Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016.