Andy Murray eyes Queen’s tonic

Murray arrives for the west London event in fine fettle after winning his first clay-court titles in Madrid and Munich before reaching the French Open semifinals.

Andy Murray during a Press conference. — Reuters

London: Andy Murray believes he is in the form of his life as he prepares to kick off his grass-court campaign in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament at Queen’s Club.

Murray arrives for the west London event in fine fettle after winning his first clay-court titles in Madrid and Munich before reaching the French Open semifinals.

After a frustrating 2014 marred by his longer than expected recovery from back surgery and an unwanted parting with coach Ivan Lendl, there is a real spring in Murray’s step again.

The 28-year-old Scot has been in a rich vein of form since marrying Kim Sears two months ago and took great encouragement from the way he pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets before finally succumbing to the world number one in Paris. And he says he is finally back to the peak performances that brought him Grand Slam titles at the 2012 US Open and Wimbledon a year later.

“Last year was very difficult because the first six months were hard coming off the surgery. I maybe didn’t expect it to be that hard,” Murray told reporters at Queen’s Club. “But this year I’ve felt ready to win major competitions again. It’s huge progress from where I was last year.

“I’ve played extremely well so far and I have to be happy with that. The grass suits my play much more than clay and hopefully if I can take the form from the clay onto grass I can have some good results.”

As an added bonus, Murray, refreshed after shaking off an illness that briefly left him with a “closed up” left eye at Roland Garros, learnt this week that his heavily pregnant coach Amelie Mauresmo will be able to work with him at Wimbledon after it was initially thought the Frenchwoman would miss the grass-court season.

Stan Wawrinka’s shock win over Djokovic in the French Open final means two of the four Grand Slam titles are currently held by players other than the Serb and his main rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, giving Murray further confidence that he is perfectly poised to take advantage of any more slips from the big three.