AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPS: DAY 6 MEDIA NOTES Saturday, June 20, 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 DAY 6 TALKING POINTS SEMI-FINAL DAY: The 32-man field at the Aegon Championships has been whittled down to just four players. Top seed Andy Murray headlines Saturday s action as he aims to reach a fourth final at The Queen s Club and a first on grass courts since winning the 2013 Wimbledon final. The World No. 3 goes up against Serbia s Viktor Troicki, with the Brit having won all six of their previous meetings. The other semi-final sees No. 7 seed Gilles Simon take on Kevin Anderson. The South African won the pair s only previous contest at Indian Wells two years ago. WHAT S AT STAKE: Murray is aiming to reach his 50th tour-level final (33-16) and a seventh on grass courts (5-1). Simon is aiming to reach his 18th tour-level final (12-5) and a second on grass courts (0-1). Anderson is aiming to reach his 10th tour-level final (2-7) and a first on grass courts (0-0). Troicki is aiming to reach his eighth tour-level final (2-5) and a second on grass courts (0-1). MURRAY CHASING 50: Murray is bidding to reach his 50th tour-level final (33-16) and his fifth of the season (2-2). He is seeking a fourth Aegon Championships title this week. If successful, the 28- year-old will join an elite group of players to have won a quartet of titles here. John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt are currently tied at the top of the Open Era tournament leaderboard with four crowns apiece. All three of Murray s titles have come in odd years: 2009 (d. Blake), 2011 (d. Tsonga) and 2013 (d. Cilic). In fact, he has a 19-1 record here in odd years and a 4-4 record in even years. He is also one of seven men to complete the Queen's-Wimbledon double in the same year: McEnroe ( 81, 84), Jimmy Connors ( 82), Becker ( 85), Pete Sampras ( 95, 99), Hewitt ( 02), Rafael Nadal ( 08) and Murray ( 13). STATS SO FAR: STAT ANDERSON SIMON MURRAY TROICKI ACES 62 9 29 43 1st SERVE % 66% 60% 63% 62% 1st SERVE POINTS WON 84% 76% 83% 80% 2nd SERVE POINTS WON 63% 54% 53% 57% SERVICE GAMES WON 98% (39 of 40) 93% (38 of 41) 89% (33 of 37) 90% (36 of 40) BREAK POINTS SAVED 91% (10 of 11) 77% (10 of 13) 64% (7 of 11) 56% (5 of 9) RETURN GAMES WON 13% (5 of 40) 25% (10 of 40) 21% (8 of 38) 18% (7 of 39) BREAK POINTS CONVERTED 50% (5 of 10) 48% (10 of 21) 38% (8 of 21) 24% (7 of 29)
Page 2 of 5 DAY 6 FEDEX ATP HEAD2HEADS CENTRE COURT [7] Gilles Simon (FRA) vs Kevin Anderson (RSA) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Anderson leads 1-0 2013 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells Hard R16 Kevin Anderson 6-3 1-6 6-4 W: Marseille (d. Monfils); SF: Rotterdam (l. to Berdych); QF (2): Montpellier (l. to Janowicz), Bucharest (l. to Gimeno-Traver) F: Memphis (l. to Nishikori); SF (3): Auckland (l. to Vesely), Acapulco (l. to Nishikori), Houston (l. to Sock) Simon vs Anderson 30 (Dec 27, 1984) Age (DOB) 29 (May 18, 1986) 13 (6 Jan 5, 2009) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 17 (15 Jan 19, 2015) 4-3 Queen s W-L 12-6 26-11 (3-0) 2015 W-L (on grass) 24-13 (3-0) 355-243 (29-21) Career W-L (on grass) 198-148 (20-16) 12 (1) Career titles (2015) 2 (0) Jan De Witt Coach Neville Godwin, Michael Anderson Simon advanced to the Aegon Championships SF for the first time after withstanding 23 aces in a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over World No. 8 Milos Raonic. It was the 28th Top 10 win of his career. Simon posted a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Australian teenager Thanasi Kokkinakis in the 2R after surviving two MPs in the 1R, coming from behind to beat David Goffin 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-2. Simon is making his fourth appearance at the Queen s Club. After reaching the 3R on his debut in 2009 (l. to Youzhny) he fell at the first hurdle in 2011 (l. to Mannarino) and 2012 (l. to Bolelli). Simon is bidding to reach his 18th ATP World Tour final (12-5) and his second on grass. His previous grass-court final appearance came at Eastbourne in 2013 (l. to F. Lopez). Simon arrived in West London after a round of 16 showing at Roland Garros (l. to Wawrinka). Simon captured a 12th ATP World Tour title in Marseille in February (d. Monfils in a 3rd set TB). The victory put him into second place, behind Yannick Noah (23), on the all-time French title leaders list. Gasquet joined him on 12 titles two months later. Simon also made the SF in Rotterdam (l. to Berdych), as well as a QF in Montpellier (l. to Janowicz) and Bucharest (l. to Gimeno-Traver). Simon now has a 28-64 career record vs. Top 10 opposition. His most recent Top 10 victory before this week came in Rotterdam in February when he beat then No. 4 Andy Murray en route to the SF. In 2014, Simon finished in the Top 25 for the sixth time in seven years after reaching a second career ATP Masters 1000 final in Shanghai in October. The Frenchman came in ranked No. 29 and defeated No. 4 Wawrinka and No. 7 Berdych en route to the final (l. to Federer in 2 TB sets). Anderson edged through to the SF at the Aegon Championships for the first time with a 7-6(7), 7-5 victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez. The World No. 17 hit 18 aces and saved both BPs he faced. Anderson ended the eight-match unbeaten run of Roland Garros champion Stan Wawrinka 7-6(4), 7-6(11) in the 2R. The South African also handed Wawrinka his first loss after the Swiss won the 2014 Australian Open, ending his 13-match winning streak at Indian Wells. In the 1R, Anderson saved a match point en route to a 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-2 win over four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt, who was playing in his last ever match at the Queen s Club. Anderson has held serve in 39 of his 40 service games this week.
Page 3 of 5 Anderson is back at the Aegon Championships for the seventh time. He reached the QF here on his last two visits, in 2012 (l. to Dimitrov) and 2014 (l. to Stepanek). Anderson is bidding to reach a 10th ATP World Tour final (2-7) and a first on grass courts. Anderson is closing in on his 200th career win (198-148). The first victory of his career came seven years ago in Las Vegas when he came through qualifying before defeating Michael Llodra in the 1R. He went on to reach the final that week before his run was eventually halted by Sam Querrey. Anderson s last competitive outing was a 3R defeat to Richard Gasquet at Roland Garros. The South African s best clay performance came in Houston in April where he advanced to the SF before falling to eventual champion Jack Sock. Anderson reached a ninth Tour final in Memphis in February (l. to Nishikori, falling to 2-7 in finals). On January 19, Anderson rose to a career high No. 15 in the Emirates ATP Rankings after reaching the SF in Auckland (l. to Vesely). He went on to reach the 4R at the Australian Open (l. to Nadal). In 2014, Anderson became the first South African to post back-to-back Top 20 seasons since Wayne Ferreira (1994-96) after reaching the QF or better eight times during the year. [1] Andy Murray (GBR) vs Viktor Troicki (SRB) FedEx ATP Head2Head: Murray leads 6-0 2008 St. Petersburg (Russia) Hard R32 Andy Murray 6-3 6-3 2009 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Miami Hard R16 Andy Murray 6-1 6-0 2009 Wimbledon (Great Britain) Grass R32 Andy Murray 6-2 6-3 6-4 2011 Roland Garros (France) Clay R16 Andy Murray 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5 2012 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo Clay R32 Andy Murray 6-0 6-3 2014 Vienna (Austria) Hard SF Andy Murray 6-4 6-3 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) W: Sydney (d. Kukushkin); F: Stuttgart (l. to Nadal); QF (2): Zagreb (l. to Garcia-Lopez), Acapulco (l. to Anderson) Murray vs Troicki 28 (May 15, 1987) Age (DOB) 29 (Oct 2, 1986) 3 (2 Aug 17, 2009) Emirates ATP Rankings (high) 25 (12 Jun 6, 2011) 23-5 Queen s W-L 4-1 39-6 (3-0) 2015 W-L (on grass) 26-13 (7-1) 520-157 (81-16) Career W-L (on grass) 215-178 (24-17) 33 (2) Career titles (2015) 2 (1) Amelie Mauresmo, Jonas Bjorkman Coach Jack Reader Murray advanced to the SF at the Aegon Championships for the fourth time, surviving Gilles Muller 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 in just under two hours. The World No. 3 landed 74% of his first serves, hitting 13 aces and winning 90% of points behind his first serve. Murray overcame Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-4 in the 2R after kicking off his bid for a fourth Queen s crown with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Yen-Hsun Lu.
Page 4 of 5 Murray returns to the Aegon Championships for the 10th time in 11 years (except 2007). He has a 23-5 career record here, winning three titles: 2009 (d. Blake), 2011 (d. Tsonga) and 2013 (d. Cilic). In odd years, Murray has a 19-1 record at Queen s (4-4 in even years). Murray became the first Brit since Francis Gordon Lowe (1913-14, '25) to win a hat-trick of titles at the Queen s Club when he won here two years ago. Murray is bidding to reach his 50th tour-level final (33-16) and his seventh on grass (5-1). His last final appearance on grass was the 2013 Wimbledon final (d. Djokovic). Murray is bidding to join four-time winners John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt at the top of the Open Era tournament leaderboard this week. Murray has a losing record against just two nations: Serbia and Monaco. He has a 19-22 record vs. Serbians with 19 of those defeats coming to Novak Djokovic and he lost his lone meeting with a player from Monaco, falling to Jean-Rene Lisnard in Monte-Carlo nine years ago. Murray arrived 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). Murray has reached at least the QFs at nine of his 10 tournament outings this year. Only Kei Nishikori and Tomas Berdych can lay claim to more (10 of 11). In 2014, Murray finished in the Top 6 for the seventh year in a row, winning three titles. Among active players, Murray has the third-most match wins on grass courts, sitting behind Roger Federer (134) and Lleyton Hewitt (128). Murray is second, however, in career winning percentage on grass (83.5%) with Federer once again leading the way on 87.6%. Here s a look at the five active match WIN leaders on the surface: W-L Index Titles Roger Federer 134-19.876 14 Lleyton Hewitt 128-40.762 8 Andy Murray 81-16.835 5 Novak Djokovic 60-15.800 2 Feliciano Lopez 59-31.656 2 Troicki will contest the Aegon Championships SF for the first time after getting past John Isner 7-6(5), 6-3 in 72 minutes. The Serbian didn t face a single BP during the match. Troicki knocked out 2012 champion Marin Cilic 6-7(8), 6-2, 6-3 in the 2R. It was his second win in as many weeks over Cilic, having also beaten the Croat in Stuttgart last week. Troicki opened his Queen s account by seeing off qualifier Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4. Troicki s only previous visit to Queen s came in 2008 when he fell in the 2R (l. to Nalbandian). Troicki is bidding to reach an eighth ATP World Tour final (2-5) and a second on grass (0-1). Troicki arrived in West London after a solid week in Stuttgart where he reached his first grass-court final with wins over Borna Coric, Alexander Zverev, Sam Groth and Cilic (l. to Nadal). Troicki opened his season in Sydney where he came through qualifying before capturing his second career title (d. Kukushkin). It was the first all-qualifier final in ATP World Tour history. Troicki also reached a pair of QFs in February: Zagreb (l. to Garcia-Lopez) and Acapulco (l. to Anderson). Troicki improved to 6-52 vs. Top 10 opponents with his win over Cilic this week.
Page 5 of 5 In 2014, Troicki finished just outside the Top 100 at No. 102 after climbing more than 700 places during the season. He reached his first ATP World Tour SF in three years as a qualifier in Vienna in October (l. to Murray).