Andy Murray won his second British grasscourt title in a week by claiming the Rothesay Open in Nottingham. And the former world No.1 will now mount his final bid to secure a Wimbledon seeding at the cinch Championships in Queen’s Club this week.
The Scot beat French world No.181 Arthur Cazaux 6-4 6-4 in today’s final to win the Challenger event without dropping a set. Murray has lost his last five ATP Tour-level matches starting with his loss to Jack Draper at the Miami Masters in March.
But his ploy to gain valuable match time on the second-tier Challenger Tour has seen him win events in Aix-en-Provence on clay last month and Surbiton last week. His provisional ranking is now inside the world’s top 40 with the top 32 guaranteed a seeding at the grasscourt Grand Slam on July 3.
Queen’s Club will be his final attempt to climb up the rankings before the seedings are confirmed on Wednesday June 28.
The start time at the Nottingham Tennis Centre was brought forward to 11am because of forecast rain later.
But the match started in bright sunshine and the Scot broke the all-white clad Cazaux at the end of an 11-minute opening game when he made a forehand volley winner following a tweener from the Frenchman.
Murray broke again to lead 4-1 when Cazaux sprayed a forehand into the tramlines. The Scot served for the set at 5-2 but the world No.181 set up three break points with a super forehand crosscourt winner – and took the first when Murray hit a tame forehand into the net.
But the double Olympic champion made no mistake the second time when he sent down an ace on his first set point to win the opening set in 57 minutes. Qualifier Cazaux, 20, had lost his nerves in the second set and threatened to break at 3-4 0-30 before the Scot produced a series of big first serves.
And Murray then upped the tempo and the pressure and took his first break point in the next game when he forced Cazaux to steer a backhand into the net. The the two-time Wimbledon winner, 36, then closed out the match by taking his first match point when Cazeaux sets a forehand long after one hour and 45 minutes.
