Pressure builds on Murray after his return is hindered

Reigning US Open champion and world No 2 Murray was forced to miss Roland Garros last week as he looked to recover from a back problem and he started his preparations for Wimbledon against Frenchman Nicolas Mahut.

But the British No 1, who lost to Mahut at the same stage of this tournament 12 months ago, could not build on a 6-3 first-set success due to the prolonged weather breaks which saw the players leave Centre Court on three separate occasions.

Murray started at a steady pace before two fantastic shots in the seventh game allowed him to break Mahut and give the Scot a surge of confidence.

The first set was wrapped up with a delicious lob after Murray had successfully challenged a call on Mahut’s second serve to put him on set point.

The rain that had been forecast all day began to fall before the second set could begin, forcing the players off with Murray on top.

They returned, albeit briefly, when the rain subsided but neither player was happy with the slippery surface on centre court and left once again following conversations with tournament director Chris Kermode.

Murray seemed to signal that he felt the court was unplayable whilst suggesting to the umpire the restart had been unwise and, although matches continued on other courts for a short time, both he and Mahut returned to the locker room.

Another short period of play was abandoned when heavier rain began to fall and play was cancelled for the day shortly after 6:30pm, with the second set poised at 2-2.

Murray’s problematic back now faces a stressful few days if he is to replicate his 2009 and 2011 AEGON Championship titles.

The Scot may have to play twice today if he can see off Mahut, with his potential third-round opponent Marinko Matosevic well-rested after the Australian received a walkover following the withdrawal of Michael Llodra.

As well as Murray’s match on Centre Court, the clash between qualifier Feliciano Lopez and 11th seed Julien Benneteau on Court One and Denis Istomin’s match against Igor Sijsling on Court Two were also interrupted by the rain and remain unfinished.

Dan Evans continued his impressive year as he secured safe passage through to the third round after beating 13th seed Jarkko Nieminen.

A Davis Cup hero for Great Britain in April, Evans opened this year’s championship with a straight-sets win over Guido Pella and his win over Finland’s Nieminen means he will now face third seed Juan Martin del Potro in the third round.

Evans made a great start to the match, going toe-to-toe with Nieminen at the net before a double-fault from the world No 37 gave the Brit an early break.

The 23-year-old held his nerve and served to love to go 5-3 ahead before taking the set after coming out on top in an impressive rally.

Evans again broke the Finn at the start of the second set but this time Nieminen responded to break back at 2-2, with both players holding from then on to set up a second-set tie break which Nieminen edged to take the match to a decider.

This time it was Nieminen who broke serve early on but Evans responded to leave his opponent serving to stay in the match before a rain delay forced the players off.

Evans, who has identified changes in his private life as a reason for on-court success, was undeterred and picked up the point required to advance to a third-round meeting with world No 7 Del Potro, with the match against the Argentinian scheduled to take place later today.

“I have my own goals tomorrow,” said Evans after beating Nieminen.

“I don’t think I need to share them with everybody. I’m pretty happy with the way I’m playing, I will just go out there and do what I have to do.

“He (Del Potro) is going to have to go down from pretty high to low, isn’t he, if I slice that much. He probably won’t play as much slice as much as me.”

Evans’s success couldn’t be replicated by Britain’s women in Birmingham, however, with Laura Robson, Heather Watson and Johanna Konta all exiting in the second round of the AEGON Classic.

Robson – Britain’s No 1 – crumbled on her second serve on her way to a 6-3 6-4 defeat to Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia after Watson had lost to Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva in little over an hour.

The 21-year-old from Guernsey was playing only her third match since recovering from glandular fever but she rarely threatened a resistance on her way to a 6-4 6-3 loss.

Konta’s subsequent 6-4 6-1 dismissal by 12th seed Kristina Mladenovic left Britain without a player in the third-round draw.

Konta struggled throughout against Mladenovic, who had beaten British No 4 Tara Moore in the first round.