AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY 2 MEDIA NOTES Tuesday, June 16, 2015 Queen s Club, London, Great Britain Jun 15 21, 2015 Draw: S-32, D-16 Prize Money: 1,574,640 Surface: Grass ATP Info: Tournament Info: ATP PR & Marketing: www.lta.org.uk Richard Evans: revans@atpworldtour.com @ATPWorldTour @BritishTennis #AegonChampionships Thomas Troxler: ttroxler@atpworldtour.com facebook.com/atpworldtour facebook.com/britishtennislta TUESDAY S TALKING POINTS DAY 2 PREVIEW: Four of the world s Top 10 players are in action on a star-studded second day of play at the Aegon Championships. Headlining proceedings is top seed Andy Murray, who opens his bid for a fourth Queen s crown against qualifier Yen-Hsun Lu. Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka also takes his tournament bow; he faces off against the talented 20-year-old Nick Kyrgios in the 1R. Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic also feature. The Spaniard, a winner in Stuttgart last week, will look to continue his winning start to the grass-court season when he takes on Alexandr Dolgopolov, while 2012 Queen s champion Marin Cilic clashes with Adrian Mannarino. MURRAY EYES FOURTH TITLE: This will be Murray s 10th appearance at the Aegon Championships in 11 years (except 2007). He has a 20-5 career record here, winning three titles in odd years: 2009 (d. Blake), 2011 (d. Tsonga) and 2013 (d. Cilic). With his win in 2013, he became the first Brit since Francis Gordon Lowe (1913-14, '25) to win a hat-trick of crowns here. The 28- year-old is coming off the best clay court season of his career, winning his first titles on the surface in Munich (d. Kohlschreiber) and Madrid (d. Nadal) before reaching the SF at Roland Garros (l. to Djokovic). Murray is one of seven men to complete the Queen's-Wimbledon title double in the same year: John McEnroe ( 81, 84), Jimmy Connors ( 82), Boris Becker ( 85), Pete Sampras ( 95, 99), Lleyton Hewitt ( 02), Nadal ( 08) and Murray ( 13). FROM CLAY TO GRASS: Wawrinka will be looking to reproduce his clay-court form on the grass of London over the next few weeks. The Swiss captured his first Roland Garros title and second Grand Slam overall in Paris nine days ago, making him the 30th male player to capture multiple major titles. The 30-year-old s defeat of Novak Djokovic in the final was just his second victory over a World No. 1 (2-17), with the first coming against Nadal in the Australian Open final in 2014. Wawrinka advanced to the SF at Queen s last year (l. to Dimitrov) before going on to make his first Wimbledon QF (l. to Federer). The World No. 4 has never won a title on grass, coming closest with a runner-up finish in s-hertogenbosch in 2013 (l. to Mahut). RAFA RETURNS: After a three-year absence, Nadal returns to the Queen s Club to make his sixth tournament appearance (13-4). His best showing here came in 2008 when he won the title, defeating Djokovic in the final. In his other four visits he lost in the QFs (2006-07, 10-11). The Spaniard contested his seventh career grass court final in Stuttgart on Sunday, defeating Viktor Troicki to claim his fourth title on the surface and a first since winning Wimbledon in 2010. His career trophy haul now stands at 66.
Page 2 of 8 DAY 2 FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS CENTRE COURT Nick Kyrgios (AUS) vs [2] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) F: Estoril (l. to Gasquet); QF: Aus Open (l. to Murray) W (3): Chennai (d. Bedene), Rotterdam (d. Berdych), Roland Garros (d. Djokovic); SF (2): Aus Open (l. to Djokovic), Rome (l. to Federer); QF (2): Marseille (l. to Stakhovsky), Geneva (l. to Delbonis) Kyrgios vs Wawrinka 20 (Apr 27, 1995) Age (DOB) 30 (Mar 28, 1985) 28 (25 Jun 8, 2015) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 4 (3 Jan 27, 2014) DEBUT Queen s W-L 3-2 13-9 (0-0) 2015 W-L (on grass) 29-8 (0-0) 25-20 (6-1) Career W-L (on grass) 366-223 (21-20) 0 (0) Career titles (2015) 10 (3) Todd Larkham Coach Magnus Norman Kyrgios is set to make his first grass-court appearance of the season after withdrawing from s- Hertogenbosch last week with an elbow injury. Kyrgios last competitive outing came at Roland Garros where he reached the 3R with a win over Denis Istomin and a walkover vs. Kyle Edmund (l. to Murray). In Madrid last month, Kyrgios saved two MPs in a 2R victory over Roger Federer before falling to John Isner in the next round. It marked the first time Federer had lost to a player aged 20-under since he fell to Juan Martin del Potro in the 2009 US Open final. Kyrgios win over Federer was the second Top 5 win of his career, having also seen off Nadal at Wimbledon last year. Kyrgios became the fifth player aged 20-under to beat both Nadal and Federer, joining Mario Ancic, Tomas Berdych, Novak Djokovic and Del Potro. In addition, the Aussie was the sixth player to beat both Nadal and Federer in their first meetings after Alex Corretja, Lleyton Hewitt, Dominik Hrbaty, David Nalbandian and Vincent Spadea Kyrgios is the first, however, to do it while Nadal and Federer are both ranked inside the Top 10. Kyrgios reached a maiden ATP World Tour final in Estoril at the beginning of May (d. Ramos- Viñolas, Krajinovic, Haase, Carreno Busta; l. to Gasquet). He had been looking to become the first Australian to win on European clay since Richard Fromberg in Bucharest in 1997. At the Australian Open in January, Kyrgios became the first teenager to reach the QF since Andrei Cherkasov in 1990 (d. Delbonis, Karlovic, Jaziri, Seppi; l. to Murray). The last Aussie teen to reach the final eight in Melbourne was Pat Cash in 1984. Kyrgios was also the first teenager to reach multiple major QFs since Roger Federer in 2001. After his run in Melbourne, Kyrgios missed the next six weeks of competitive action due to a persistent back injury. He returned at Indian Wells where he lost to Dimitrov in a 3rd set TB. Kyrgios climbed to a career-high No. 25 in the Emirates ATP Rankings last week. Kyrgios has a 2-7 career record vs. Top 10 opposition. In 2014, Kyrgios ended his breakthrough season as one of two teenagers (also Borna Coric) in
Page 3 of 8 the Top 100, rising 134 places during the year. Wawrinka returns to the Aegon Championships for the third time. He fell in his opening round to James Ward on his debut in 2011 before reaching the SF here last year (l. to eventual champion Dimitrov). Wawrinka won his first Roland Garros title and second major overall in Paris nine days ago. The Swiss, who is one of 30 players to have won multiple majors, closed with wins over Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Novak Djokovic. He joined an elite group of players - Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson, Andres Gimeno, Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl to have won both the junior boys and senior French Open titles. Wawrinka captured the eighth and ninth titles of his career in Chennai (d. Bedene) and Rotterdam (d. Berdych) either side of a SF appearance at the Australian Open (l. to Djokovic). Wawrinka suffered early exits in both Indian Wells (l. to Haase in 2R) and Miami (l. to Mannarino in 3R) in March. He also fell to Dimitrov in both the 3R in Monte-Carlo and Madrid before reaching the SF in Rome (l. to Federer). In 2014, Wawrinka finished in the Top 10 for the second year in a row at a year-end high No. 4. He captured his first Grand Slam crown at Australian Open (d. Nadal), first ATP Masters 1000 title in Monte-Carlo (d. Federer) and won the Davis Cup with Switzerland for the first time. Sam Querrey (USA) vs [6] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) TBF: 6-4, 3-6 FedEx ATP Head2Head: Dimitrov leads 1-0 2013 Washington (U.S.A.) Hard R16 Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 6-2 F: Houston (l. to Sock); SF: Memphis (l. to Nishikori) SF (2): Brisbane (l. to Federer), Istanbul (l. to Cuevas); QF (2): Monte-Carlo (l. to Monfils), Madrid (l. to Nadal) Querrey vs Dimitrov 27 (Oct 7, 1987) Age (DOB) 24 (May 16, 1991) 38 (17 Jan 31, 2011) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 11 (8 Aug 4, 2014) 16-6 Queen s W-L 11-5 10-12 (0-0) 2014 W-L (on grass) 18-11 (0-0) 247-201 (35-23) Career W-L (on grass) 154-105 (23-14) 7 (0) Career titles (2015) 4 (0) Tom Gullikson Coach Roger Rasheed Querrey is back in West London for the eighth time. He lifted the fifth of his seven career titles here in 2010, defeating Mardy Fish in the final. He also reached the SF here in 2012 (l to Cilic). Querrey s last competitive outing was a 1R loss to Borna Coric at Roland Garros. It was one of seven opening round losses for the American in 2015. Querrey s best result this season was a runner-up showing on clay in Houston (l. to Sock, falling to 7-7 in finals). He also put together a SF run indoors in Memphis (d. No. 18 Isner in QF; l. to Nishikori in 3rd set TB). In 2014, Querrey finished in the Top 50 for the third year in a row, reaching three tour-level SFs. Dimitrov is making his seventh straight appearance at the Aegon Championships having first appeared as a teenager in 2009. He lifted the title here last year, defeating World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka in the SF before saving 1 MP en route to victory over Feliciano Lopez in the final.
Page 4 of 8 Dimitrov is looking to successfully defend a title for the first time in his career. Dimitrov will be hoping to bounce back after a 1R loss to Jack Sock at Roland Garros. His best clay court results were a SF appearance in Istanbul (l. to Cuevas) and QF outings at both Monte- Carlo (d. No. 9 Warinka, l. to Monfils) and Madrid (d. No. 9 Wawrinka, l. to Nadal). His wins over Wawrinka both weeks were the ninth and tenth Top 10 victories of the Bulgarian s career. Dimitrov began the year with runs to the Brisbane SF (l. to Federer) and 4R at the Aus Open (l. to Murray) before suffering early exits in Rotterdam (l. to Muller in 2R), Acapulco (l. to Harrison in 2R), Indian Wells (l. to Robredo in 3R) and Miami (l. to Isner in 3R). In 2014, Dimitrov finished a year-end high No. 11, winning a personal-best 50 matches and three titles on three surfaces: Acapulco (d. Anderson), Bucharest (d. Rosol) and Queen s (d. F Lopez). [5] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Nadal leads 5-1 2010 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Madrid Clay R32 Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-3 2011 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami Hard R16 Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-2 2012 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells Hard R16 Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-2 2013 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Shanghai Hard R32 Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-2 2014 Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Clay F Rafael Nadal 6-3 7-6(3) 2014 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells Hard R32 A Dolgopolov 6-3 3-6 7-6(5) W (2): Buenos Aires (d. Monaco), Stuttgart (d. Troicki); F: Madrid (l. to Murray); SF (2): Rio de Janeiro (l. to Fognini), Monte-Carlo (l. to Djokovic); QF (4): Aus Open (l. to Berdych), Indian Wells (l. to Raonic), Rome (l. to Wawrinka), Roland Garros (l. to Djokovic) QF (2): Delray Beach (l. to Young), Acapulco (l. to Nishikori) Nadal vs Dolgopolov 29 (Jun 3, 1986) Age (DOB) 26 (Nov 7, 1988) 10 (1 Aug 18, 2008) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 79 (13 Jan 16, 2012) 13-4 Queen s W-L 3-1 33-10 (4-0) 2015 W-L (on grass) 13-12 (0-1) 739-150 (57-15) Career W-L (on grass) 158-142 (44-50) 66 (2) Career titles (2015) 2 (0) Toni Nadal Coach Oleksandar Dolgopolov Nadal will be looking to continue his winning start to the grass-court season when he opens his campaign at the Aegon Championships. The Spaniard is making his sixth appearance at The Queen s Club. He has reached the QF or better on all five of his previous visits, winning the title in 2008 (d. No. 6 Roddick in SF; No. 3 Djokovic in F). Nadal captured his first grass-court title in five years last week in Stuttgart (d. Baghdatis, Tomic, Monfils and Troicki). It was the fourth grass-court title of his career and 66th overall. Nadal has hit 10 or more aces in a match on 20 different occasions during his career. Only four of those have come in best-of-three-set matches with two of them coming last week in Stuttgart vs. Troicki (11) and Tomic (14) Nadal suffered just his second ever defeat at Roland Garros earlier this month, losing to Novak Djokovic in the QF. His record at the French Open now stands at 70-2.
Page 5 of 8 Nadal went 21-6 during the clay-court season, with his six losses coming against Djokovic twice (Monte-Carlo SF and Roland Garros QF), Fognini twice (Rio de Janeiro SF and Barcelona 3R), Murray (Madrid F) and Wawrinka (Rome QF). The last time he lost that many matches on the surface in a single season was in his rookie campaign in 2003. Nadal s best showing on clay came in Buenos Aires where he won the 46th clay court title of his career (d. Monaco). He is now just three short of Guillermo Vilas record clay court title haul of 49. His victory in Argentina ended a nine-month trophy drought dating back to Roland Garros 2014. Nadal dropped to No. 10 in the Emirates ATP Rankings last Monday, putting him into double digits for the first time since he ranked No. 11 on April 18, 2005. In March, Nadal fell in the QF at Indian Wells (l. to Raonic after holding 3 MPs) and the 3R in Miami (l. to Verdasco). Nadal lost his opening match of the season, 1R in Doha (l. to Michael Berrer), before reaching the QF of the Australian Open (l. to Berdych). In 2014, Nadal finished in the Top 3 for the ninth time in the past 10 years (except 2012), capturing four titles in seven finals. The Spaniard extended his streak of winning at least one Grand Slam title per year to a record 10th year in a row with his ninth victory at Roland Garros. His 14 Slam titles are tied second all-time with Pete Sampras, behind Roger Federer (17). Dolgopolov returns to Queen s Club for the third time. He reached the QF here last year before handing eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov a walkover. Dolgopolov s best results this season were back-to-back QFs in Delray Beach (l. to Young in 3 sets) and Acapulco (l. to Nishikori) in February. He also advanced to the 4R in Miami in March (l. to Djokovic in 3 sets). Dolgopolov has dropped 56 places in the Emirates ATP Rankings since the start of the year. He comes in on a three-match losing streak having lost to Ernests Gulbis in the 2R in Nice, Nicolas Almagro in the 1R at Roland Garros and Philipp Kohlschreiber in the 1R in Stuttgart. After five straight losses to Nadal, Dolgopolov finally got the better of the Spaniard en route to a first ATP Masters 1000 SF at Indian Wells last year. He was the first Ukrainian to beat a reigning World No. 1. In 2014, Dolgopolov finished in the Top 25 for the third time in the past four years, advancing to the QF or better six times. [1] Andy Murray (GBR) vs [Q] Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Murray leads 2-1 2008 Beijing Olympics (China) Hard R64 Yen-Hsun Lu 7-6(5) 6-4 2013 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells Hard R32 Andy Murray 6-3 6-2 2013 Wimbledon (Great Britain) Grass R64 Andy Murray 6-3 6-3 7-5 W (2): Munich (d. Kohlschreiber), Madrid (d. Nadal); F (2): Australian Open (l. to Djokovic), Miami (l. to Djokovic); SF (2): Indian Wells (l. to Djokovic), Roland Garros (l. to Djokovic); QF (2): Rotterdam (l. to Simon), Dubai (l. to Coric) QF (2): Chennai (l. to Bautista Agut), Delray Beach (l. to Mannarino)
Page 6 of 8 Murray vs Lu 28 (May 15, 1987) Age (DOB) 31 (Aug 14, 1983) 3 (2 Aug 17, 2009) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 63 (33 Nov 1, 2010) 20-5 Queen s W-L 6-7 36-6 (0-0) 2015 W-L (on grass) 8-11 (0-1) 517-157 (78-16) Career W-L (on grass) 134-188 (6-17) 33 (2) Career titles (2015) 0 (0) Amelie Mauresmo, Jonas Bjorkman Coach Roberto Antonini Murray returns to the Aegon Championships for the 10th time in 11 years (except 2007). He has a 20-5 career record here, winning three titles: 2009 (d. Blake), 2011 (d. Tsonga) and 2013 (d. Cilic). In odd years, Murray has a 16-1 record at Queen s (4-4 in even years). Murray has fallen in his opening match at Queen s twice, losing to Janko Tipsarevic in 2006 and Nicolas Mahut in 2012. Murray is looking to join four-time winners John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt at the top of the tournament leaderboard this week. Murray arrives on the grass after his best ever season on clay. He posted a 15-1 record winning back-to-back titles in Munich and Madrid, with his lone defeat coming against Novak Djokovic in the SF at Roland Garros. The Scot had never contested a clay-court final before this year. Murray s victory in Madrid was his 10th at ATP Masters 1000 level and his first in more than two years. It also marked his 33rd title overall, which saw him break into the Top 20 Open Era title leaders, joining Arthur Ashe and Mats Wilander in 19th place. In March, Murray advanced to the SF at Indian Wells and the final in Miami, losing to Djokovic each time. With his 4R win over Anderson in Miami, Murray became the first British player to hit 500 wins. He defeated 185 different opponents from 50 different countries en route to the milestone. Murray opened his season by reaching the Australian Open final for the fourth time (l. to Djokovic). In 2014, Murray finished in the Top 6 for the seventh year in a row, winning three titles. Lu is set to make his eighth appearance at the Aegon Championships after coming through qualifying. His best showing came on his last appearance here in 2012 when he reached the QF with a win over then World No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic (l. to Cilic). Lu opened his grass court season in s-hertogenbosch, falling to Adrian Mannarino in the 1R. Lu has made two QFs this year: in Chennai in the opening week of the season (l. to Bautista Agut) and in Delray Beach in February (l. to Mannarino). Lu has a 7-21 record vs. Top 10 opponents with his most recent win coming over No. 5 Tomas Berdych in the 2R of Cincinnati last year (l. to Fognini in 3R). In 2014, Lu compiled a second Top 50 season (also 2010), winning a career-high 24 matches. He also ended his winless run in tour-level QFs (0-10) by reaching a first final in Auckland (l. to Isner). [4] Marin Cilic (CRO) vs Adrian Mannarino (FRA) Other Meetings: 2007 Roland Garros Q (France) Clay Marin Cilic 6-2 6-3 SF: Stuttgart (l. to Troicki); QF (2): Monte-Carlo (l. to Djokovic), Geneva (l. to Giraldo) F: Auckland (l. to Vesely); SF: Delray Beach (l. to Karlovic) QF: s-hertogenbosch (l. to Mahut)
Page 7 of 8 Cilic vs Mannarino 26 (Sep 28, 1988) Age (DOB) 26 (Jun 29, 1988) 9 (8 Oct 13, 2014) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 32 (29 Apr 20, 2015) 16-6 Queen s W-L 5-3 9-8 (2-1) 2015 W-L (on grass) 16-14 (2-1) 316-175 (36-18) Career W-L (on grass) 65-93 (14-12) 13 (0) Career titles (2015) 0 (0) Goran Ivanisevic Coach Marc Gicquel Cilic is back at the Aegon Championships for the ninth year in a row. He has reached the final here twice, winning in 2012 (d. Nalbandian) and finishing runner-up in 2013 (l. to Murray). Last year he fell to Marinko Matosevic in the 1R. Cilic opened his grass-court campaign last week with a SF outing in Stuttgart (l. to Troicki). Cilic made five clay-court appearances, with his best showing a QF run in Monte-Carlo (l. to Djokovic). He also reached the 4R at Roland Garros (l. to Ferrer). Cilic missed the first two months of the season with a right shoulder injury. He returned at Indian Wells, where he fell in his first match to Juan Monaco. In 2014, Cilic finished a year-end best No. 9 and won more than 50 matches for the first time (54), capturing a personal-high four titles, including a first Grand Slam crown at the US Open (d. Nishikori). He was the first Croat in the year-end Top 10 since Ivan Ljubicic in 2006. Mannarino is set to make his fourth appearance at the Aegon Championships. His best run came on his debut in 2011 when he reached the QF with wins over Gilles Simon and Juan Martin del Potro (l. to Ward). Mannarino is bidding for his 17th victory of the season today. If successful, he will equal his previous highest season win haul, which he set in 2011 (17). Mannarino arrives in West London off the back of a QF appearance in s-hertogenbosch last week (l. to eventual champion Mahut). Mannarino opened his season in Auckland where he reached a maiden ATP World Tour final (l. to Vesely). He also reached the Delray Beach SF in February (l. to Karlovic), dropping to 1-3 in SFs. Mannarino s other standout performances came during the American hard court swing in March. He reached the 4R at an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time at Indian Wells (l. to Murray) before following with another 4R run in Miami (d. No. 8 Wawrinka in 3R; l. to Thiem). Mannarino rose to a career-high world No. 29 in the Emirates ATP Rankings on April 20th. Mannarino has a 1-12 record vs. Top 10 opposition. In 2014, Mannarino finished in the Top 50 for the first time, winning 16 tour-level matches during the year the second-most in his career. COURT 1 [Q] Jared Donaldson (USA) vs John Isner (USA) [7] Gilles Simon (FRA) vs David Goffin (BEL)
Page 8 of 8 Joao Sousa (POR) vs [8] Feliciano Lopez (ESP) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Lopez leads 1-0 2013 Roland Garros (France) Clay R64 Feliciano Lopez 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 COURT 9 Viktor Troicki (SRB) vs [Q] Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Series tied 1-1 2009 Hamburg (Germany) Clay QF P-H Mathieu 3-0 ret 2009 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Paris Hard R64 Viktor Troicki 7-6(4) 3-0 ret [WC] Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) vs Jeremy Chardy (FRA) COURT 2 Gilles Muller (LUX) vs Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Youzhny leads 2-1 2005 Roland Garros (France) Clay R128 Mikhail Youzhny 6-4 6-1 6-0 2009 Roland Garros (France) Clay R128 Mikhail Youzhny 7-6(2) 6-1 6-4 2012 US Open (U.S.A.) Hard R128 Gilles Muller 2-6 3-6 7-5 7-6(6) 7-6(6)