Murray at Queens

Andy Murray admits he needs to work quickly to heal the scars from his French Open thrashing against Rafael Nadal as he starts his Wimbledon preparations by defending the title at Queen’s Club.

Murray’s hopes of reaching the final at Roland Garros for the first time came to a humbling end on Friday with a brutal 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 loss to world number one Nadal in the semi-finals.

But it was the lethargic nature of Murray’s tame performance that was concerning, especially with so little time to recover mentally and physically before the grass-court campaign gets underway at Queen’s in west London on Monday in the lead-up to the defence of the Wimbledon crown he won so memorably in 2013.

While Murray would have relished handing Nadal a rare defeat at the French Open, in reality Wimbledon offers a far more realistic chance for the world number eight to add to his two Grand Slam titles.