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Net gains

King of Queen's: Dogged Murray defeats Tsonga in London

Britain’s Wimbledon hopeful claims an impressive victory against France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

ANDY MURRAY HAS won his first title of the season, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 at Queen’s Club.

Today’s final was played a day late because of rain. Murray also won this title in 2009. He is the first Briton to win the Wimbledon warm-up at least twice since Francis Gordon Lowe won in 1913, ’14 and ’25.

Murray earned the only break in the third set, taking a 3-2 lead on his 10th break point when Tsonga sent a forehand wide.

Tsonga broke to lead 4-2 in the first set and later saved two break points as he served out the set. Both players had chances in the second set before Murray won the final five points of the tiebreaker.

It was only the third time the final was played on Monday and the sunny weather was in stark contrast to yesterday’s rain-sodden proceedings.

The match had sold out well before its 12.40pm start, with some spectators queueing as early as 2am for tickets to the game.

Murray’s win, against the man who knocked out Rafael Nadal in the previous round, is likely to be a major boost to his confidence, as he prepares his attempt to become the first British-born player to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.

- Additional reporting: AP

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