Sir Andy Murray has admitted that his early exit from the Aegon Championships at Queen's is a "big blow" to his hopes of doing well at Wimbledon.
The world number one slumped to a shock straight-sets defeat at the hands of Jordan Thompson in the first round this afternoon, with the world number 90 having only been drafted in four hours prior following the withdrawal of Aljaz Bedene.
Both of Murray's previous Wimbledon triumphs in 2013 and 2016 have come off the back of success at Queen's, and the Scot admitted that he is now likely to be short of practice on grass heading into the Grand Slam.
"It's a big blow, for sure. Obviously this tournament has given me great preparation in the past and when I have done well here, Wimbledon has tended to go pretty well too. It's not ideal obviously but guys have in the past also gone in to Wimbledon having not won lots of matches," he told reporters.
"Novak [Djokovic] a number of times hasn't played any warm-up tournaments and played very well there. It has happened in the past where guys haven't done well and they've gone on to do well at Wimbledon. There is no guarantees that I won't do well at Wimbledon but it certainly would have helped to have had more matches.
"I do think that a lot can change in a short period of time. Everything was a lot better in practice. Today's match was not good but I was much better in practice. If I play like that, I certainly won't win Wimbledon but I can play better than that."
Murray has now lost nine matches already in 2017, six of which have come against players outside of the top 20.
