Indian Wells finalist Juan Martin Del Potro has joined Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych in confirming his place in the field for the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club in June.
The Argentinian world number seven enjoyed one of the best weeks of his career when he beat Murray and Novak Djokovic back-to-back at the BNP Paribas Open last week, the first player to get the better of the world number one this year.
Grass has not been his strongest surface but he showed his potential last summer when he beat Djokovic to win the bronze medal at the Olympic tournament at Wimbledon.
He said: “I like to play on grass, and at the Aegon Championships you feel like you are at home.
“They provide some great facilities for the players and it’s a very good tournament.”
Del Potro was expected to be challenging for grand slam titles on a regular basis when he won the US Open in 2009, but a wrist injury ruled him out for almost a year and it has taken him time to get back to his best.
His best performance in his previous two appearances at Queen’s Club came in 2011, when he made the third round, while he has never been beyond the last 16 at Wimbledon.
US Open champion Murray will be looking for his third title at Queen’s, and Del Potro said: “Murray is a big champion, he already won a grand slam, he made the finals in Australia and he has everything he needs to be at the top in the future.”
* Heather Watson’s recent poor form continued as she crashed to a three-set defeat against Japan’s Ayumi Morita in the first round of the Miami Masters.
The British number one followed up her opening-round exit in Indian Wells last time out with another early failure, despite comfortably taking the first set against the world number 50.
The defeat continues a miserable sequence for 20-year-old Watson, who crashed out of Indian Wells at the hands of Irina-Camelia Begu and has yet to win a match since climbing to a career-high 39 in the world rankings last month.