Thursday, 21 June 2012:

World No.4 Andy Murray suffered a fresh blow to his Wimbledon preparations on Wednesday as the Scot was beaten by Janko Tipsarevic at an exhibition tournament.

Just hours after being named as the fourth seed in the men's draw at Wimbledon, Murray slumped to his second successive defeat on grass, losing 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 10-7 against Serbia's Tipsarevic in The Boodles event at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire.

The 25-year-old British No.1, who has reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the last three years, crashed out of the All England Club warm-up event at Queen's last week after losing to Nicolas Mahut in his first match.

However, Murray insisted he was just happy to get more time on grass and played down the significance of losing to Tipsarevic.

"It's always good to get matches in before a big event, especially against a top 10 player so it was a good test," Murray said.

"I was moving much better than I was a week ago at Queen's, I wasn't slipping around as much which will be important for Wimbledon.

"I'm hitting the ball very well and practice has been very good over the last few days.

"I've got another match here tomorrow (Thursday) and then I'll spend two or three days at Wimbledon before the tournament starts."

Murray, still looking to win his first grand slam title, is Britain's only serious contender for the Wimbledon men's title, which hasn't been won by a home player since Fred Perry lifted the trophy in 1936.

Although Wimbledon could be slightly over-shadowed by the conclusion of Euro 2012 and the build-up to the London Olympics, Murray is well aware he will be under the microscope during the two weeks of his home grand slam.

"Every year it makes no difference to me whether a big football competition or the Olympics is on," Murray said.

"It's the same because I always put pressure on myself to do well.

"Every time you play at the big events you want to prove you're at the top and I'll try to do that at Wimbledon.

"I reached the semi-finals last year and you want to do better every year you play at Wimbledon.

"It's going to be tough, there are a lot of tough players around, big servers with big games that are very tough early on, especially on grass."

AAP