London: Andy Murray has set his sights on the perfect warm-up for Wimbledon as the world number two eyes a record fifth title at Queen’s Club.
Murray won his fourth Queen’s crown last year to equal the record set by John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewitt, Boris Becker and Roy Emerson.
After losing in his first French Open final appearance against Novak Djokovic earlier this month, Murray is back on the practice courts in west London ahead of Monday’s start at Queen’s and will face French world number 49 Nicolas Mahut in the first round.
Murray’s grass court pedigree is among the best in the world after he memorably ended Britain’s 77-year wait for a male singles champion at Wimbledon in 2013.
The 29-year-old Scot had lifted the Queen’s trophy just a few weeks prior to that epic success and hopes a similar feat is on the cards this year as he looks to add to his two Grand Slam titles.
“If I could win it for a fifth time it would be amazing,” said Murray, who made his Queen’s debut as a scruffy teenager back in 2005.
“The names that have won four times, they are all great tennis players.”
In the quarter-finals, Murray is scheduled to face French eighth seed Gilles Simon, while France’s Richard Gasquet is seeded to meet him in the last four.
Second seed Stan Wawrinka could be lying in wait if Murray reaches his fifth Queen’s final.
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Wawrinka this week added 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek to his coaching team in a bid to improve his relatively underwhelming results on grass.
The Swiss world number five has never been beyond the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 11 attempts despite winning the Australian Open and French Open and he told coach Magnus Norman he was keen to bring a grass-court specialist like Krajicek on board for a few weeks.
PTI
