Murray to break new ground

Andy Murray will break new ground as he attempts to build on his impressive clay-court campaign by lifting a first grass-court title at the AEGON Championships this week.

The 22-year-old is the first British player ever to be seeded number one at Queen's Club and his chances of victory have been enhanced by the withdrawal of world number one Rafael Nadal, who is taking more time out to rest his troublesome knees ahead of Wimbledon.

Murray, the world number three, said: "The grass court season has always been good fun for me. The Queen's Club tournament has an unbelievable history and it's the perfect preparation for Wimbledon."

He added: "Playing on grass presents a different sort of challenge to the rest of the season and it's a good marker for me to see where my game's at."

Like all of the top eight seeds, Murray has a bye into the second round, where he will face either Italy's Andreas Seppi or American Robby Ginepri.

Organisers will hope Murray can make up for that by going one better than Tim Henman and winning the title - the former British number one was a three-time finalist but lost to Pete Sampras and Lleyton Hewitt twice.