Andy Murray has made the perfect start to his bold venture with new coach Amelie Mauresmo as the Wimbledon champion opened his Queen's Club title defence with a 6-4 6-4 win over Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Murray sent shockwaves through the tennis world when he announced on Sunday that Frenchwoman Mauresmo would replace Ivan Lendl, who quit in March, as his coach for at least the grass-court season.
The 27-year-old's decision to ignore several high-profile male coaches to hire Mauresmo, a former world number one and Wimbledon champion, has been the talk of the sport for the last three days.
Mauresmo had a brief spell working with male player Michael Llodra in 2010, but in the world of men's tennis few leading players have female coaches and the decision is seen in some quarters as a major gamble.
In the circumstances, a routine second round victory at this Wimbledon warm-up was exactly the kind of first date the pair needed as Murray, bidding to win Queen's for a record-equalling fourth time, proved far too strong for world number 92 Mathieu on Wednesday.
Since losing to Roger Federer in the 2012 Wimbledon final, Murray has been unstoppable on grass and his winning run, which brought him Olympic gold, a first Wimbledon crown and a third Queen's title, has now extended to 19 matches.
Murray's next opponent in the third round will be Czech 15th seed Radek Stepanek, who defeated Australian Bernard Tomic 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (7/5).
Elsewhere in the second round, top seed Stan Wawrinka was on court for only 16 minutes before Marcos Baghdatis withdrew injured.
Cypriot Baghdatis, who was handed a Wimbledon wildcard on Wednesday, retired with Australian Open champion Wawrinka leading 3-2 in the first set.
Former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt's bid to win a record fifth Queen's crown ended with 6-3 6-4 defeat against Spanish 10th seed Feliciano Lopez.
Lopez's next opponent will be France's Kenny De Schepper, a surprise 7-6 (7/3) 7-5 winner over Ernests Gulbis, the sixth seeded Latvian who recently reached the French Open semi-finals.
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