[Connor]

Murray made a positive start to his pre-Wimbledon campaign with a win over a relentless Yen-hsun Lu 6-4 7-5 in the first round of the Aegon Championships at the Queens Club. However, the draw in the next round gets far more difficult for the Scot because if he wants to see his name in the quarter-final stage he is going to have to overcome old foe and former Top 10 player Fernando Verdasco of Spain. Verdasco was once a brutal force on the tour, a definite roadblock for any top player who faces him. However, in recent years he has found himself going up and down the rankings constantly trying to look for form, coupled with the odd killer run through a draw. Ever since reaching the Top 10 in 2009, Verdasco has gradually declined and never found the form that took him to the semi finals of the 2009 Australian Open and the World Tour Finals that same year. But, he still continues to cause problems for the very best, having already beaten Rafael Nadal this year in Miami.

Andy and Verdasco have a lot of history, meeting and most of the big events on the tour with Verdasco knotching up a few wins over the Scot in the past. Their last meeting came last year in the fourth round of the French Open, where a keen Murray progressed in straight sets. That meeting though will always be overshadowed by their previous meeting to that, which came on the very surface they are due to play on at Queens. Grass. The meeting came at the Wimbledon championships in 2013, where Andy fought from two sets down in order to beat Verdasco at the quarter final stage, before going on to win the title.

Andy leads the head to head over Verdasco 10-2.

[lashurst]

Andy in 2 for me 

Me too, my good friend 

Should be some good rallies with these two.

[Aileen]

Agreed Mackem.  If Muller vs Dimitrov runs to previous form hopefully it won't go to 3.

Just so long as Andy can remain as consistent as possible, play a sold game and let Fernando do the wobbling, he should be fine, and at least today's doubles should have sharpened him up a bit.  I hope he can get his problematic shorts sorted out though!

[Aileen]

lol  Well done for persevering Bev!

[Bevc]

lol  Well done for persevering Bev!

They were asking for feedback.  Needless to say, they got it!

[Aileen]

They were asking for feedback.  Needless to say, they got it!

And they'll be getting it from me too!  The site's a technological shambles and, from what I can gather, often doesn't help the users it claims it's 'improving' it for. 

[blueberryhill]

benniebone, I was at the match and Andy just looked a bit rusty to me, as he had on the practise court on Monday. Plus his serve was "off" and Lu really played above his pay grade.
I don't usually believe in "luck" but gotta say Verdasco had an ex tremely "lucky" net cord in his previous match. In post match interview,  Inverdale, I think, sooooo rude, kept talking about Andy being his next opponent, before the match had been played!
Having said that Verdasco can be so dangerous. Eek!  
Come On Andy  
Let's Go!  :cmon:s
Great H2H BevC

[tamila]

I think that in the doubles Andy's serve games were not broken and that he played extremely well.  I did not see the match but have deduced this from watching the live scores tick over and knowing which games were Andy's.  I fell pretty sure that he will come out knowing what he has to do.  I am not always so sure of 3 setters as 5 setters though.