LONDON — Andy Murray made a successful start to his reunion with coach Ivan Lendl as the defending champion battled to a 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-1) victory over Nicolas Mahut at Queen's Club Tuesday.
Murray is bidding for a record fifth title at the Wimbledon warm-up event and the world No. 2 ignored the slippery conditions on a rainy day in west London to advance to the second round in one hour and 50 minutes.
He will play Britain's Aljaz Bedene or France's Benoit Paire for a place in the quarterfinals.
Earlier, Stan Wawrinka suffered more misery on grass despite the addition of new coach Richard Krajicek as the Swiss second seed crashed to a 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) first round defeat against Fernando Verdasco.
But, with Manchester United legend David Beckham and his son Romeo watching, the early returns on the partnership weren't promising as world No. 53 Verdasco set up a second round meeting with Australia's Bernard Tomic, who beat South Africa's Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-4.
Elsewhere, 2012 Queen's champion Marin Cilic defeated Spain's Feliciano Lopez 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and next plays Grigor Dimitrov or Janko Tipsarevic.
Spanish sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut ground out a 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-1) victory over 2010 Queen's winner Sam Querrey and next faces Donald Young.
Muguruza loses grass opener
In Spain, Garbine Muguruza lost her first match since winning the French Open, bowing to Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the Mallorca Open grass-court tournament Tuesday.
The second-ranked Spaniard had a 2-1 record against Flipkens, but the Belgian won their only previous match on grass three years ago en route to the Den Bosch final.
Two other seeds also lost: No. 4 Kristina Mladenovic of France to former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 6-4, and No. 5 Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan to Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-2. Cirstea saved all four break points she faced.
Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic improved her win-loss record to only 8-13 this year after beating Ana Konjuh of Croatia 7-5, 6-3.
Another player in need of a good run was former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Canada. She started the year with finals in Hobart and Kuala Lumpur but has won only half of her matches since February. She defeated Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-3, 7-5.
Kvitova wins
In Birmingham, Petra Kvitova, twice a Wimbledon champion, showed signs of kick-starting her year on the surface she likes most by making a timely dash into the second round of the Aegon Classic.
Kvitova, who has been troubled by illness, personal setbacks and a 10-month title drought, beat both her long-time friend Lucie Safarova and frequent downpours to advance by 6-3, 6-3 in this Wimbledon warm-up event.
Only half an hour later Angelique Kerber, the Australian Open champion and the titleholder, contested only seven games with Peng Shuai of China before rain brought a three-and-a-half hour interruption.
Eventually Kerber was sufficiently consistent to complete 7-6 (7-3) success without looking at her best against a hard-to-read opponent who hit with both hands on each side.
Another seed, Karolina Pliskova, the eighth, lost 6-4, 7-6(9-7) to Barbora Strycova, in a similarly rain-interrupted contest.
Baghdatis beats Berdych
In Germany, Marcos Baghdatis beat fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) in the first round of the Gerry Weber Open Tuesday, taking a measure of revenge for his loss in the 2007 final.
Baghdatis kissed the grass after his victory.
Also, rising prospect Alexander Zverev beat seventh-seeded Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round.
American teenager Taylor Fritz went out against Japanese qualifier Yuichi Sugita despite firing 15 aces. The match was halted by rain Monday in the tiebreaker and Sugita completed a 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-3 win.
Florian Mayer of Germany had 11 aces in beating Brian Baker of the US 7-5, 7-6 (3), and Ivo Karlovic pounded 26 aces to move past Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia 7-6 (6), 6-3.
In the late match, wild card Dustin Brown beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3, 7-5.
