T365 Recalls: When Andy Murray won a record fifth title at Queen’s Club

Tennis365
Andy Murray Queens Club champion

On this day in 2016, Andy Murray won a record fifth Aegon Championships title at Queen’s Club with victory over Milos Raonic.

The ATP 500 event marked the start of a glorious summer for Murray as he went on to win a second title at Wimbledon while he also won gold at the Rio Olympics not long after and also finished the year at No 1 in the ATP Rankings.

The Scot started his campaign at Queen’s in 2016 with straight set wins over Nicolas Mahut and Aljaz Badene before he was taken to three sets by fellow Brit Kyle Edmund in the quarter-final.

Murray again went the distance in the semi-final, this time defeating fifth seed Marin Cilic to secure his place in the showpiece match against Raonic.

Although he lost the first set of the final and was 3-0 down in the second, Murray pulled off a great fightback to secure a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 victory over the world No 9.

Victory also ensured his success was unparalleled at Queen’s with a record fifth title, moving him ahead of four-time winners including Roy Emerson, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick, and John McEnroe.

“It’s a tournament that obviously means a lot to me,” Murray said afterwards.

“It’s been my most successful tournament by far, clearly. To be the first player to win five times is… it’s not an easy tournament to win.

“It always has a great field and the players I have beaten in the finals, a lot of times have been top players. It’s not like I have had easy finals.

“They have been top, top players, most of them top 10, some of them Grand Slam winners, Grand Slam finalists. That’s good.”

The Queen’s Club event also marked a successful start to Ivan Lendl’s second stint as Murray’s coach and the Scot was quick to praise tennis great Lendl after his win.

“It’s nice of him to stick around for the presentation,” he said courtside.

“Obviously it was a good first week back together.”

The win put Murray in good stead ahead of preparations for Wimbledon, which was set to begin just eight days later.

Both players met again in the final as Murray won 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-2) to win his second grass-court Grand Slam.

Just under a month after his Wimbledon success, Murray won his second Olympic gold medal as he defeated Juan Martin del Potro in the final singles at the Rio Games in Brazil.

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