Tennis: London loss just hiccup, says Nadal

Nadal's campaign suffered another setback yesterday when the Grand Slam winner was dumped out of the Wimbledon warm-up event by Alexandr Dolgopolov. Photo / AP

Rafael Nadal insists his shock defeat in the first round at Queen's Club won't damage his chances of a strong challenge for the Wimbledon title.

Nadal's disappointing 2015 campaign suffered another setback yesterday when the 14-time Grand Slam winner was dumped out of the Wimbledon warm-up event by Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.

After the bitter blow of falling to only the second French Open defeat of his glittering career - to Novak Djokovic in the Paris quarter-finals - Nadal looked to be slowly getting back on track when he won the Stuttgart tournament last week.

But the 29-year-old's 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4 defeat against world No79 Dolgopolov in west London shattered his hopes of improving his ranking - at a decade-low 10th - in time for his latest bid for a third title at Wimbledon, starting in less than two weeks.

Nadal puts the loss down to the misfortune of facing an inspired opponent.

"I prefer to win all the matches. Not just before Wimbledon, I prefer to win all the matches of the year.

"It's nothing very negative. I won a tournament last week and, this week, I lost an opportunity."

Unlike Nadal, three-time champion Andy Murray had no problems at Queen's as he saw off Taiwanese qualifier Lu Yen-Hsun 6-4 7-5.

French champion Stanislas Wawrinka triumphed 6-3 6-4 over Australian rising star Nick Kyrgios. The Swiss second seed will next face South African Kevin Anderson.

Defending Queen's champion Grigor Dimitrov moved into the second round to face Gilles Muller, after a 4-6 6-3 6-4 victory against 2010 winner Sam Querrey.

- AAP