Jordan Thompson has made it into the quarter-finals of the Queen’s Club Championships but could take no pleasure from defeating home hero Andy Murray for the second time on one of the Briton’s grasscourt strongholds. Thompson last beat Murray on the beautiful Queen’s courts back in 2017 when the Scot was Wimbledon champion and world No.1.

To this day, it remains the 30-year-old Australian battler’s finest win. But Wednesday’s triumph was a very different affair. Instead of beating a man at the top of his game, Thompson this time saw off a limping, ailing 37-year-old Murray, who called it off after just five matches, handing Thompson a walkover after just 20 sad-to-behold minutes.

It was, in all likelihood, the last time Murray will play at the famous old London venue where he’s won five titles. More Tennis But in the last-eight, Thompson will be joined by fellow Sydneysider Rinky Hijikata, who earned a fine win over Italian Matteo Arnaldi to ensure there will be two Australians in the last-eight of the most prestigious grasscourt tournament outside Wimbledon. That seemed an unlikely outcome after Australian No.

1 Alex de Minaur, last year’s beaten finalist, had been knocked out on Tuesday by another Italian, Lorenzo Musetti. For Thompson, it was a bittersweet moment to see Murray call it a day while struggling from the after-effects of his victory over another Australian, Alexei Popyrin the previous day. “I could see he had a problem in the warm-up and then his.