LONDON: Andy Murray’s grasscourt return was cut short in brutal fashion at Queen’s Club as Italian top seed Matteo Berrettini dished out a 6-3 6-3 defeat to the former world number one on Thursday.

The 34-year-old two-time Wimbledon champion, playing in his first singles tournament on grass for three years, could not handle the ferocious pace of Berrettini as he slid to defeat.

Murray, who’s been nursing a groin injury, eased past Benoit Paire in his opening match on Tuesday but world number nine Berrettini was too big a step up.

The Italian had 14 aces in the 85-minute match, saved all three break points he faced, and had just seven unforced errors. He held Murray to just one winner and twice broke serve in the first set. He won the first three games of the second to take command.

“I did not play very well,” said Murray, who added that just being back on court was not a barometer of success for him. “I’m not sitting in the locker room after a match and going, ‘Oh, you know, that was a shame that, you know, doesn’t really matter, and, you know, I’m just happy being out there’.”

Berrettin faces British number one Dan Evans in the quarter-final after Evans beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 7-6 (9-7).

Spanish veteran Feliciano Lopez, who won the singles title in 2019 and the doubles alongside Murray, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by Canada’s Denis Shapovalov, and American Frances Tiafoe defeated qualifier Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-3, 7-6 (7-3).

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2021