Andy Murray beats Australian Alexei Popyrin at Queen’s in his 1000th Tour level match and first since March as the Scotsman continues to impress ahead of Wimbledon despite retirement talk

Andy Murray’s summer is alive at last. The 37-year-old beat Australian Alexei Popyrin 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the Cinch Championships to record his first Tour level win since he tore ankle ligaments in Miami in March.

It was Murray’s 1,000th Tour level match and it came exactly 7,000 days after his first. It felt entirely appropriate for the Scot to bring up such a milestone here at the Queen’s Club. His first ATP win came here in 2005 and he has won the title five times – along with a memorable post-hip resurfacing doubles title with Feliciano Lopez in 2019. This was his 16th visit, equalling Lleyton Hewitt’s record.

Murray is part of the furniture here. A huge poster of him welcomes spectators to the grounds and the stands bear the branding of Castore, the sportswear company in whom he is a shareholder.

He knows this court’s every nuance; where to put the ball to get himself out of trouble and put his opponent’s into it.

In his post-hip surgery incarnation Murray has looked underpowered at times and prone to hitting the ball too short. That is far less of an issue on grass, in fact a short, skiddy ball can often be the hardest to deal with – especially for a tall man like Popyrin.

Murray beat Popyrin (pictured) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at the cinch Championships at The Queen’s Club

It was Murray’s 1,000th Tour level match and it came exactly 7,000 days after his first

Murray has always loved playing big guys, especially on grass. But the 24-year-old Popyrin won a couple of matches here to make it in through qualifying and has a huge serve – this was certainly a potentially tricky first round.

At 3-4 he played a classic Murray return game – getting the ball back in play by hook or crook and then outmanoeuvring from there, and eventually extracting a big double fault on break point as Popyrin tried to avoid another painful rally.

After the second set the DJ – what an incongruous figure she cut bopping away amidst the well-heeled society types – played a remix of I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by Murray’s countrymen the Proclaimers.

If that Scottish anthem was intended to inspire Murray it failed.

Popyrin landed some meaty blows in the second set and showed a greater willingness to come into the net; it was with a deft drop-volley that he sealed an early break.

Tuesday’s win was a brilliant moment for Murray after he previously tore ankle ligaments in Miami in March

Murray produced a brilliant performance against one of men’s tennis’ biggest servers

Big servers like him are great front-runners on grass and he was untroubled in closing out the set.

But when Popyrin served for the first time in the second set, Murray played a superb game to break, sealed with a one-two backhand punch of a sliding slice and then a rifled double-handed pass.

From there he held firm to set up a second-round meeting with another Aussie – Jordan Thompson.

Earlier in the day, defending champion Carlos Alcaraz extended his winning run on grass to 13 matches, saving three second-set points to beat close friend Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 7-5.