Andy Murray will be looking to extend his likely final appearance at Queen's by progressing past Jordan Thompson to reach the quarter-finals.
However, the five-time champion of this event heads into Wednesday's contest having lost on this court to the Australian in the past.
Match preview
The headline on Tuesday evening was Murray finally reaching his 1000th match on the ATP Tour, a feat he will appreciate once he hangs up his racquet.
For now, though, the 37-year-old is all business as he bids to enjoy and end his career in style, and posting his first win since May against Alexei Popyrin was the first step towards achieving that.
Murray was far from his best against the world number 49, yet there was an efficiency about his game, aside from his start to the second set, as he came through with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 win.
Nine aces and only suffering one break of his serve represented progress from his defeat to Marcos Giron in Stuttgart last week, and he will square off against Thompson with a growing sense of confidence.
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Thompson is another player who began this tournament completely out of form, with no ATP Tour win coming since the middle of April on the clay in Barcelona.
The 30-year-old has also never got past the third round of Wimbledon, yet he pulled off one of the notable wins of his career on Monday as he defeated Holger Rune.
Although the Dane was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, the seventh seed could not prevent Thompson rallying from a set adrift to prevail by a 4-6 7-6 6-3 scoreline.
Coincidentally, Thompson came through in straight sets against Popyrin at this tournament 12 months ago, highlighting he has a grass-court game that can probably match Murray's at this stage of their respective careers.
Tournament so far
Jordan Thompson:
First round: vs. Holger Rune 4-6 7-6 6-3
Andy Murray:
First round: vs. Alexei Popyrin 6-3 3-6 6-3
Head To Head
Queen's (2017) - first round: Thompson 7-6 (4) 6-2
Surbiton (2023) - semi-finals Murray 7-6 (5) 6-3
Given their respective times on the tour, it is unusual that Murray and Thompson have only met twice, both of which came on the grass.
When Murray was defending champion in 2016, Thompson handed him one of his most surprising losses on the surface, running out a 7-6 6-2 winner in the first round of the 2017 event.
However, Murray would get some sort of revenge six years later, coming through by a similar scoreline at a challenger event in Surbiton before going onto lift the trophy.
We say: Thompson to win in two sets
We would have backed Thompson to come through regardless of the turnaround times, but the fact that Murray will have had only 24 hours recovery time sees us predict a straight-sets win for the Australian, a break in each set potentially doing the damage.
![Cameron Norrie looks dejected at the Queen's Club Tennis Championships on June 17, 2024 [IMAGO]](https://sm.imgix.net/11/29/1x1.gif?w=1&h=1 "Cameron Norrie looks dejected at the Queen's Club Tennis Championships on June 17, 2024 [IMAGO]")
