Andy Murray has made the perfect start to his bold venture with new coach Amelie Mauresmo as the Wimbledon champion opened his Queen’s Club title defence with a 6-4 6-4 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Murray sent shockwaves through the tennis world when he announced on Sunday that Frenchwoman Mauresmo would replace Ivan Lendl, who quit in March, as his coach for at least the grass-court season.
The 27-year-old’s decision to ignore several high-profile male coaches to hire Mauresmo, a former world number one and Wimbledon champion, has been the talk of the sport for the last three days.
Mauresmo had a brief spell working with male player Michael Llodra in 2010, but in the testosterone fuelled world of men’s tennis few leading players have female coaches and the decision is seen in some quarters as a major gamble.
In the circumstances, a routine second-round victory at this Wimbledon warm-up was exactly the kind of first date the pair needed as Murray, bidding to win Queen’s for a record-equalling fourth time, proved far too strong for world number 92 Mathieu.
Since losing to Roger Federer in the 2012 Wimbledon final, Murray has been unstoppable on grass and his winning run, which brought him Olympic gold, a first Wimbledon crown and a third Queen’s title, has now extended to 19 matches.
Murray’s next opponent in the third round will be Czech 15th seed Radek Stepanek, who defeated Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/5).
Inevitably there wasn’t a spare seat to be had on the main show-court in west London for the eagerly-anticipated beginning of the Murray-Mauresmo partnership.
Murray emerged to warm applause sporting a neat new haircut, while photographers focused their lens on Mauresmo, wearing a black T-shirt, as she took her place next to assistant coach Dani Vallverdu at one side of the players’ box, with the Scot’s girlfriend Kim Sears at the other end.
Elsewhere in the second round, Lleyton Hewitt’s bid to win a record fifth Queen’s crown ended with 6-3 6-4 defeat against Spanish 10th seed Feliciano Lopez.
“It was just frustrating,” the Australian said.
“I didn’t do a lot wrong out there. He just served too well and got a little bit lucky on a couple of balls.”
Lopez’s next opponent will be France’s Kenny De Schepper, a surprise 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 winner over Ernests Gulbis, the sixth seeded Latvian who recently reached the French Open semi-finals.