Andy Murray began his grass-court season on Tuesday with a straight sets win over Yen-Hsun Lu. The 28 year-old Scot, the top seed for the tournament and three-time champion, won 6-4 7-5 against a qualifier from Chinese Taipei.
The 31 year-old Lu, who is ranked 63rd in the world, demonstrated some excellent Tennis and looked comfortable on the grass. He made it throughout the qualifying rounds to participate in this year's Queen's tournament. The Chinese Taipei tennis player, who was a Wimbledon quarter-finalist in 2009, defeated Murray in the first round at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The Scot played Spanish world number 42 Fernando Verdasco in the second round on Thursday and won 7-5 6-4. He will play in the quarter-finals against Gilles Mulles, from Luxembourg, who defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-4 7-6(7-5).
American John Isner and Serbian Victor Troicki will meet in the other quarter-final that is play on Friday; Istner beat Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (9-11) 7-6 (7-4) in a dramatic three tie-break thriller, and Troicki defeated former Queen's champion Marin Cilic 7-6 (10-8) 6-2 6-3.
Spanish Guillermo García-López will play South African Kevin Anderson, while French Gilles Simon will face Canadian Milos Raonic in the other two quarter-finals.
However, Rafael Nadal, Nick Kygious and Stan Wawrinka are unexpected, early casualties in Queen's.
Nadal's exit in the first round was the days' shock news, as he was beaten 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 by the 26 year-old Alexandr Dolgopolov from Ukraine, ranked 79th. Although provided by high profile support from the former King of Spain Juan Carlos and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, the 29-year old Spaniard, who won at the Stuttgart grass court tournament on Sunday, was unable to overpower his younger opponent.
Nick Kyrgious, the teenage wonder from Australia, also had a shock exit on the first day, after he lost 6-3, 6-4 to Stan Wawrinka, but the French Open Champion himself had a surprised defeat in the second round, as he lost 7-6 7-6 to Anderson; this was the South African's fourth win against the Swiss.
