Andy Murray on Sunday became the most successful player at Queen’s Club after beating Milos Raonic to claim an historic fifth title ahead of Wimbledon.
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However, from 3-0 down, Murray suddenly burst back into life and a stunning backhand return victor saw him get back on serve as Raonic was broken for the first time this week, in his 56th service game of the tournament.
Zverev fought back to take the second set but Mayer secured the final set to close out victory.
“I’ve made some good progress this week and I hope to continue in the days leading into Wimbledon”. Murray would break Raonic three more times in the final two sets to claim history on his first Father’s Day.
Murray, who also hoisted the trophy in 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015, had shared the previous record of four Queen’s titles with seven other men, including Boris Becker, Roy Emerson and Raonic’s new grasscourt coach John McEnroe.
It was 21-year-old Keys’ first title of the year and comes a week before the start of Wimbledon.
The victory maintained a career-best run of form for Murray, who has now posted two titles and two runner-up finishes from his last four events.
But by the time former Wimbledon champion Murray came to pick up the oversized trophy, there was an empty seat where the notoriously taciturn Lendl had been sitting – much to the amusement and fake indignation of the world number two.
The tone was set in the very first point as Raonic bounded forward, Murray punched back a pass and the Canadian’s volley dropped into the net.
There were a couple of 15-30 openings for both players on their opponent’s serve, however neither managed to muster up a break point on the way to a first set tie break.
When asked if he had let the match get away from him, Raonic said: “I’d definitely say so”.
The impact Lendl may have had since his return was already noted by some, who observed that Murray was displaying the crunching forehand absent from his play except when under the Czech’s tutelage. “I was really motivated”.
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More pertinently Murray and Lendl, along with his year-round coach, Jamie Delgado, have already crunched the numbers of this final and his wins against Nicolas Mahut, Aljaz Bedene, Kyle Edmund and Marin Cilic earlier in the tournament. “It always has a great field and the players I have beaten in the finals a lot of times have been top players”. If I do that, then, you know, I’ll put myself in a good position.
