Right so now I'm onto my second and final part of my look at the Queens club tournament, the Aegon championships and the men's final.
So let's get started, the final was between Andy Murray and the defending champion Marin Cilic, and it promised to be quite a tough match and it sure turned out to be just that. In the first set it didn't look it at the start as Andy started off playing aggressive tennis against the big Croatian as he broke him to go 3-0 up. However at 4-2, Andy started to lose concentration on serve and he let Cilic back in as he broke back, and at 4-4 Andy suffered a brief scare as he lost his balance and fell on one knee and curled up in pain, however he soon managed to get up and carry on. However the fall started to shake Andy's concentration as at 5-5, Cilic broke Andy's serve and he soon went on to serve out the first set. In the 2nd set however Andy turned things around as he started to serve better and he started putting pressure on Cilic's service games and at 6-5 with Cilic serving to take it into a tiebreak, Andy made his move and broke the Croat's serve to level the match and take it into a decider. In the 3rd set, Andy soon took the momentum with an early break, but Cilic still game kept himself in the match, being a break down, but in the end Andy had no problem serving out the match and clinching his third title at Queens after a hard fought 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win.
This was a really entertaining and gripping final and the crowd really couldn't have asked for a better one with both players playing some great tennis for the full house. And Andy really showed once again despite a few wobbles that he has really learned to utilise that champion mentality that he has earned under Ivan Lendl's coaching and ultimately that got him through. As for Marin Cilic he also played his part in this match and he did really well in staying with Andy and coming back from a break down in the first set to go on and take it, and he never really went away from the match as he hung tough as long as he could before the Scot cranked up the gears and surprassed him.
After the match they also had a really enteratining Rally for Cancer charity match, featuring Tim Henman, Ivan Lendl and Tomas Berdych along with Andy as they played a one set shootout. The match had some fun points and particularly the best shot of the match came when Andy hit a crouched forehand winner, which hit Lendl right in the elbow, which saw Andy jump and yell for joy, in a way which we have never seen! This in its own was one of the highlights of the day, and even Ivan Lendl showed his lighter side as he joked on the court with Andy and Tim, and at one point he said to the audience "I don't even know why you are applauding him, he's Scottish anyway!". Later on they had another celebrity match which featured two teams, team Murray and team Henman, and the celebs featured Jonathan Ross, Michael McIntyre, Jimmy Carr, Richard Branson and the mayor of London Boris Johnson (who showed up with an old fashion wooden racquet!). The match itself was short on quality but had quite a few laughs, especially from Michael McIntyre's on court antics as he wore a belt with tennis balls attached to it, and he grabbed a cluster of tennis balls to wipe his face with! Jonathan Ross also made a rude but funny comment in reponse to Andrew Castle about putting the ball into court by saying "put the bloody thing inside!" and Jonathan said "I haven't heard that since my wife said that to me on the night of our honeymoon!".
So all in all it was fun day at Queens and a great day for Andy Murray who triumphed with his third title there and it was his 27th career title overall, and here's hoping that Wimbledon just might be his 28th. However Andy has got a lot of work ahead of him before he can achieve that goal, and it has to be said he has had a few lapses on serve once again during the week and that is something he can't afford to do against the other top three guys otherwise he is bound to come out second best. However one thing we can be sure of his that Andy will do his best to try and win Wimbledon again this year, and despite those one or two lapses he is going into Wimbledon looking very good indeed, with his movement and the rest of his game as sharp as ever. And with winning Queens again Andy couldn't have asked for better preparation and there have been many Queens champions that have gone on to win Wimbledon such as Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt and Rafa. So I will wish Andy the very best of luck for Wimbledon when it starts next week, and I will be there on Saturday 29 June for the day, so I can't wait!
And I shall leave it there for now, more to follow once Wimbledon get's under way.
Bye for noww!
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