Australia’s Marinko Matosevic ended Marin Cilic’s attempt to reach a third consecutive Queen’s Club final and then aimed a verbal volley at Andy Murray’s decision to hire Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach.
Cilic won the Wimbledon warmup tournament in 2012 when his opponent David Nalbandian was disqualified and the 25-year-old Croatian made it back to the final last year before losing to Murray.
But the ninth seed’s hopes of becoming the first player to reach three successive Queen’s finals since Andy Roddick from 2003 to 2005 were shattered by Bosniaborn Matosevic in a 6-4, 6-4 first round defeat in west London.
Matosevic, 28, was still in combative mood during his post-match press conference as he became the first male player to disagree with Murray’s coaching appointment.
“For me, I couldn’t do it since I don’t think that highly of the women’s game,” said Matosevic, who is coached by compatriot Mark Woodforde. “His mum coached him and she did a great job with him, so we’ll see what happens.
“It’s all equal rights these days. Got to be politically correct. So, yeah, someone’s got to give it a go. Won’t be me.”
Although he wasn’t in action on Tuesday, there was still plenty of attention on reigning Queen’s and Wimbledon champion Murray, who starts his spell working with Mauresmo in time for the second round match against France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Murray rocked the tennis world when he announced on Sunday that Mauresmo was his choice to replace Ivan Lendl as his coach for at least the grass-court season.
Mauresmo, a former world No1 and Wimbledon champion, arrived at Queen’s to link up with Murray, but kept a low profile, telling reporters “I’ll see you tomorrow” when approached after watching compatriot Julien Benneteau lose to Victor Estrella Burgos.
Murray may have noted that the first round provided mixed results for the two other leading male players coached by women.
Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin, coached by his wife Anastasia, was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by Czech 15th seed Radek Stepanek, while Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, coached by his mother Klaudiya, defeated compatriot Farrukh Dustov 7-6 (9/7), 6-3.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, the world No 18, also moved into the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 win against British wild card Dan Evans.
