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Former Kings of Queen’s Murray and Lopez make Their Exits at the Hands of Top Two Seeds
- Updated: June 18, 2021

By Ricky Dimon
Andy
Murray and Feliciano Lopez were the kings of Queen’s Club in 2019.
Neither one lasted past Thursday this time around.
Both Murray and Lopez were knocked out of the singles event during second-round
action on Thursday afternoon. The 34-year-old Scot benefited from a favorable
draw against Benoit Paire in the first round, but he was not so lucky in having
to face No. 1 seed Matteo Berrettini immediately thereafter. Murray, playing
singles for the first time since early March, went down 6-3, 6-3 to the
Italian.
“I
played two sets in preparation for this event,” the former world No. 1 noted.
“It’s not very much when you haven’t played matches since March. I do feel like
I genuinely have been hitting the ball well in practice. But then like
today, when you’re under a bit more pressure and stuff and having to make very
split-second decisions when you’re on the court, if the guy is serving 140
miles an hour it’s difficult to prepare for that.
“I actually felt my movement was quite good for both of the matches. And all of
the numbers and [analytics] from the first match we got, in terms of the speeds
I was moving at on the court, we were happy with that as a team.
“My tennis today was not very good. That’s the thing that I’ll need to improve the most rather than, I think, the actual movement around the court.”

Murray did not have to move much at Queen’s Club in 2019, when he was making his comeback to tennis following major hip surgery. He only played doubles with Lopez, and they made an improbable run to the title.
In fact, two years ago–before the Covid-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 festivities–Lopez was the undisputed king of Queen’s. Not only did the Spaniard triumph in doubles with Murray, but he also captured the singles title for the second time in his lengthy career. It was a truly unbelievable week for the 37-year-old.
Now 39, Lopez is finally slowing down–and it was obvious in a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Denis Shapovalov.
Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.