Andy Murray beats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to claim second Queen’s title

• Murray wins 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 • Thousands queue for tickets for held-over final Andy Murray won his second Queen’s title after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga by two sets to one. The British No1 lost the first set 3-6, before winning a second set tie-break (7-2) and then clinching the final set 6-4. The final was held over from Sunday after a washout, and the tournament organisers made tickets available to the general public – with thousands being snapped up on Sunday night and the remainder all sold well before the 12.40pm start. Murray – seeded No2 – forced a break point chance in game three, but a somewhat fortunate net cord from a fierce volley saved Tsonga. In game five it was the Scot who found himself on the back foot, love-40 down. Tsonga, seeded fifth, made the most of the opportunity, correctly challenging a marginal line call, which gave the Frenchman the initiative. After allowing Murray brief hope in his next service game as the Briton rallied to deuce from 40-15 down, Tsonga powered his way further ahead at 5-2 as the world No4 laboured on the baseline. Murray finally found his range in game nine, mixing things up to force two break points – only for Tsonga to recover and claim the first set after a tame forehand into the net from the No2 seed. The second set went with serve through five games, which included fine net exchanges from both men. Murray had been sublime in his semi-final demolition of Andy Roddick, and slowly grew in composure, but was finding Tsonga a determined opponent as the Frenchman closed out his next service to love, levelling at 3-3. A 131mph serve put Murray ahead again, and he then forced two break chances in the next game, which Tsonga recovered only to concede another after a long return from the baseline. However, Murray again failed to take advantage as more chances were wasted with unforced errors before Tsonga eventually levelled again at 4-4. It was five apiece after a love service game from the Frenchman, who had beaten the Englishman James Ward in the semi-finals. Murray continued to be dogged by unforced errors as Tsonga was handed two break points, the second of which was saved by a fortunate net-cord ricochet. However, he pulled through to lead 6-5. Tsonga’s athleticism was impressive, diving to volley back Murray’s own acrobatic return from between his legs at the baseline as the second set went to a tie-break. Both men gained mini-breaks before Murray moved 5-2 ahead as Tsonga lost his range at the baseline and closed out the set 7-6 (7-2) to level the match. By the third set there was little to choose between the two men, who met in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year, as the decider moved towards a tense conclusion. The crowd found their voice again as Murray finally broke Tsonga’s resistance to lead 3-2 and then moved further ahead with the Queen’s Centre Court basked in sunshine. The 24-year-old Scot was now beginning to showboat, producing a drop-shot through his legs as he took control of the match for the first time at 5-3. Murray secured the championship on his next serve to love, completing the comeback in just short of two and a half hours. Andy Murray Tennis guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 13, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.