Andy Murray suffers first-round Queen’s exit to Alex De Minaur in blow to Wimbledon seeding hopes

Five-time Queen’s champion Andy Murray suffered a 6-3 6-1 first-round exit to Alex De Minaur in a bitter blow to the 36-year-old’s hopes of earning a Wimbledon seeding.

But he was second best throughout against the Australian seventh seed, who extended his head-to-head superiority over the Scot to 4-0.

De Minaur will face Diego Schwartzman in the second round.

“I don’t want to overanalyse,” said the 36-year-old.

“It’s easy to overreact. I lost to a good player.

“It’s obviously not the same level of opponents, but I won Nottingham last week without dropping a set. I only lost one set in Surbiton.

“I was holding serve very comfortably, moving well, hitting the ball good. There are a lot of positive signs there.”

Murray made a promising start, holding the opening game before forcing De Minaur to save three break points as he applied pressure for an early breakthrough.

The Scot swung his racket in frustration when he double-faulted to surrender break point in the following game from 30-0 up, but he got out of trouble with some big serving.

De Minaur eventually earned the break in game five, seizing his first opportunity when a Murray backhand flew wide.

Murray was eventually left serving to stay in the set and was broken once again, shanking a forehand long to end a forgettable opener in 47 minutes.

Murray continued to struggle to pressure De Minaur’s serve in the second set and found himself a break down once again at 3-1, when the Aussie hit a backhand cross-court winner on the first of three break points.

De Minaur earned a double-break at the fourth time of asking to go 5-1 up, coming to the net to dispatch a volley, leaving the three-time Grand Slam winner shaking his head on his chair at the change of ends as his opponent prepared to serve for the match.

Murray saved three match points on De Minaur’s serve, but could do nothing about the fourth.