Sam Querrey Beats Mardy Fish to Win the 2010 Aegon Championships Title. The all-American final was decided  7-6(3) 7-5 on Sunday.

Fish had knocked Andy Murray and was perhaps lucky to still be in the draw after he asked for his match against the Scot to be halted on the Thursday evening as he felt it was getting dark with the momentum in the match very much with Murray.

Fish served well from the start of the match but the same was not the case for Querry, who struggled through his opening service and had to save 3 break points in his first service game but soon found his range and took the first set 7-3 in the tie-break.

Fish stepped up his game in the second set and secured an early break and should have went on to win the third set but was unable to serve out the match when he was broken back at 5-4 as Querrey leveled the set. Fish wouldn’t win anther game after that as Querrey would once again break in the final game.

Fish and Queerey will hope to continue their grass court form into Wimbledon which begins on Monday 21st June 2010 – Get the Latest betting advice for the 2010 Wimbledon Odds

With the departure of Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick the quarter final draw of the 2010 Aegon Championships was looking quite barren of top name stars with the exception of Rafael Nadal all 6 of the top seeds had fallen by the thrid round.

That pattern of big stars being knocked out continued, Rafael Nadal was beaten in straight sets by fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6 6-4. Lopez had beaten Nadal before, though it was 7 years ago with Nadal just 17 years old. Today though Lopez can hold this result up as a major conquest. Nadal was on a 24 match undefeated streak and the world number 1 had not lost on grass in his last 14 match matches on the green stuff. It was only Nadal’s 4th loss to a left hander.

Lopez will now play Mardy Fish, who after finishing off his first round match against Murray went on to take out Llodra a few hours later in straight sets.

In the other half of the Draw, 7th seed Sam Queerey is the top seed remaining in the event. The 7the seed this week and world number has emerged as the favourite to win the 2010 Queens Club title. He knocked out Xavier Malisse in the quarters and now faces Rainer Schuettler in the semis.

Andy Murray and Mardy Fish had to wait until Friday to complete their 2010 Aegon Championships third round match after bad light had stopped the match with the tie evenly poised at 4-6 6-1 3-3. It would be Fish who came through on Friday after winning the the third set on a tie break.

The final match score 4-6 6-1 6-7 (2-7).

Murray had started poorly yesterday and dropped his serve in the opening game, it would be all that Fish needed to secure the first set as his served looked unbreakable in his first 5 services game.

His serve was not unbreakable though and Murray quickly got himself back into the match securing two breaks of serves and rushing into a 5 love lead in the second set. Two more games and the set was over.

The third set started very strangely, Murray had a sniff at an immediate break, but executed a poor shot at deuce and from them on the Scot seemed to lose focus as Fish held serve and went on to break Murray to love in the next game. Fish would hold next service game before Murray seemed to get his focus back.

He did indeed regain his focus and after holding serve pushed Fish to deuce once again in the Americans service game, a miss cued overhead by Fish gave Murray the chance to break and that’s what he did on the next point.

Fish then started to question the light and only one more game would be played, not to the amusement of Andy Murray and the Queens Club crowd who had stayed to watch the match despite very cold weather conditions.

Murray question the umpires decision and he could be heard telling the chair umpire that the only reason he believed that Fish wanted to end for the day was that it was now 3-3 and that he wasn’t complaining about light when he was up a break a few minutes ago.

The match resumed today with both players holding serve easily in each of their service games to force a tie break – In usual situations the top ranked player goes on to win – Murray right now is low in confidence and form and it was Fish who stepped up his game. Murray had dropped just one point in his last three service games, but failed to win a single point in the tie break on his own serve.

Improvement is needed should he wish to compete at SW19.

Match Preview

Andy Murray and Mardy Fish will meet in the 3rd round of the 2010 Aegon Championships today, weather permitting.

There match is scheduled for third on centre court and will be shown live on the BBC and Eurosport – An approximate time of the match  is difficult with rain fore-casted for the afternoon – Don’t expect to see Andy before 5pm.

Fish and Murray have met three times before with Murray holding a 3-2 advantage over the world number 90 – though it was Fish who was the winner when they met last. Just three months ago at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Miami, Murray was swept away 6-4, 6-4. An impressive victory considering that Andy Murray was the defending champion and part of a reel slump for Murray after reaching the Australian Open final.

Prior to that match Murray had won the last three encounters, the most recent of those was here at Queens Club in 2009 when Murray won in straights sets 7-5 6-3 in the quarter finals on his way to winning the whole event.

If Murray had not had his recent drop in form, you probably wouldn’t be getting as good as odds as you can at this moment on a Murray win – If you are placing a bet Betfair has the best odds currently on a Murray win and they are current only a free £25 when you sign up for Betfair.

We are into the quarter final stages at the 2010 Aegon Championships in London and Rafael Nadal remains the favourite to the lift the title.

We’ve already lost Andy Roddick and Novak Djockovic, they had been 3rd and 4th favourite to lift the trophy this year, but Roddick was conquered by Israel’s Dudi Sela and Djokovic lost to Xavier Malisse

Rafael Nadal is the favourire to lift, he’s undefeated in his 22 matches, which includes 3 masters wins and of course the French Open title. Even though those wins were all in clay, Nadal is actually undefated in hos last 13 grass court matches, having missed last years grass court season the last time enter a grass court event, he won the 2008 Wimbledon title.

2nd favourite to win this week is last years winner and world number 4 Andy Murray, he is drawn in the same half as Nadal and is so far set for a semi final showdown with Nadal. Murray though at the moment is just 3 games away from going out to Mardy Fish and the Scot’s form of late has been poor, with early knockouts in many of recent tournaments, including a loss to the same Mardy Fish in Miami, he’ll be looking to improve on these results.

On the other half of draw with Novak Djokovic and Andy Roddick both out big serving American Sam Querrey has emerged as the favourite to reach the final from the bottom half of the draw.

As usual Betfair are currently offering the best odds on all players winning. They will also give you a free £25 for signing up.

The 2010 AEGON Championships at Queens Club in London got underway today with the start of the first round matches. The draw was made on saturday for the ATP 250 event as just been finalised.

This years championships boasts a stellar line up with 3 of the top 4 players in the world playing – the only absentee is Roger Federer who has always played alternative grass court event in Halle, Germany.

The top 8 seeds are awarded byes in the first round. Britains two wildcard entries have been given tough first round matches Jamie Baker takes on Denis Istomin and James Ward palys experienced American Robby Ginepri.

Andy Murray’s opening match will be against Spain’s Ivan Navarro or Austria’s Daniel Koellerer. No 1 seed and perhaps soon to be world number 1 Rafael Nadal will kick off his grass court season against Marcos Daniel of Brazil or Blaz Kavcic from Slovenia.

2008 finalist (lost to Nadal) and world number 3 Novak Djokovic will take on Paolo Lorenzi or Pere Riba in his first grass court match. Djokovic is making his return to London’s Queens club this year after opting to play Halle last year, where he lost in the final to Tommy Haas.

4 time Queen’s club champion and last years beaten Wimbledon finalist Andy Roddick will once again step on to the grass courts of Queen’s club and he will being his campaign against Igor Kunitsyn or Illya Marchenko. Roddick is the fourth seed at this years event.

If Andy Murray is to win the event this year, he would likely need to overcome, world number 12 Marin Cilic in the quarter finals, Rafael Nadal in the semi finals and either Andy Roddick or Novak djockovic in the finals.

3 Brits have made it through to the final round of qualifying for the 2010 AEGON championships.

The ATP 250 tournament better know as Queens Club has attracted a grand field this year and is the traditional warm up event for Wimbledon which will start in just over two weeks time.

British hopefuls Alex Bogdanovic, Daniel Cox and Daniel Evans are just one win away from reaching the main draw and joining the likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and fellow Brit Andy Murray.

In the final matches 7th seed and British number 2 Alex Bogdanovic will play the highest seed remaining in the draw Ilija Bozoljac. The Serbian has been a mainstay inside the world 200 for the last 5 years, but has never quite broken in to the big time. He has been as high 101 in the rankings and  is currently 133. Bogdanovic under normal circumstances would have already been in the main draw with the help of a wild-card – but poor Wimbledon results and Davis Cup results have garnished massive public criticism and his days of receiving are now over. Even without wild cards though, Bogo remains Britain’s 2nd best tennis player!

Daniel Cox recorded an impressive win over the 3rd seed Grega Zemlja who is ranked at 141 in the world over 400 places higher than Cox is at the moment. The 19 year old must now face 8th seed veteran Frank Dancevic in the final round to reach the main draw.

Daniel Evans, Britain’s 5th best player and recent Davis Cup player will take on Dmitry Tursunov in the final round. Tursunov, aged 27 was a top 20 player less than 4 years and was inside the top 30 less than 18 months ago, but has steadily dropped down the rankings in the last year largely due to an ankle injury. The last time Russian was fully fit he won the grass court ATP event in Eastbourne 12 months ago.

11 British players started qualifying and just 5 made it through to the second round and when considering their was 4 all British first round matches, that’s not that bad or good with best case scenario being 7.

We will be guaranteed one Brit in the final round as British No. 6 Dan Smethurst and British No. 2 Alex Bogdanovic will meet in the second round. Smethurst was the one Brit who beat a non-Brit, dispatching Spain’s Arnau Brugues-Davi 6-1 4-6 6-4. The 7th seed for qualifying  Bogdanovic beat fellow Brit James Marsalek in the first round.

British number 5 Dan Evans will face 33 year old Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, who was ranked as high as 52 in the world back in 1999. Delgado eliminated British No. 4 Josh Goodall (world ranking 543) in the first round in tightly fought 6-3 3-6 7-6(2) win for the Paraguayan. Dan Evans had an easier win against British number 11 Alex Slabinsky 6-3 7-5.

British number 10 Joshua Milton will face 2nd seed Ilija Bozoljac from Serbia. Bozoljac has been kicking around the 100-200 mark in the world rankings for the last 5 years and has never quite broken in to the big time. He has been as high 101 in the rankings and  is currently 133, he recently qualified for the French Open.

The last Brit through to the second round is British number 12 Daniel Cox who took out British number 14 Marcus Willis in the first round winning 6-3 7-6(5). Cox will face 3rd seed Grega Zemlja who had a bye in the first round. Zemlja is currently enjoying a ranking high of 141 in the world after spending a few years down in the 300′s, he qualified for Wimbledon last year and the OZ open this year.