Andy Murray loses grip on Queen's Club crown as he falls to defeat against Nicolas Mahut So how much will this result impact on his Wimbledon preparation, given that he has played just one competitive match at Queen's this year, rather than the five that he won on the way to the 2011 title? His response to this (admittedly predictable) question was sarcastic. "Oh, panic stations," he droned. I've just got no chance to be ready for Wimbledon now. It's going to be impossible, I think. Once he had got the frustration out of his system, Murray offered a straighter answer. "[Novak] Djokovic isn't playing the next two weeks," he said, "so there is no need for me to panic. I lost the third set 7-6 in the first round of the tournament. It takes time to adjust to the grass courts. And it wasn't like I got blown away and played horribly. Over the next couple of days, I'll discuss what I'm going to do, whether I play one or two of the exhibition matches next week. It's very, very unlikely I would play a tournament next week, but I'll probably try and get a couple more matches. Queen's Club's loss could prove to be the Boodles' gain, given that the Buckinghamshire exhibition tournament - where Djokovic is booked in to play next week - will probably find its ranks swelled by the addition of the British No. Mahut was always going to be an awkward draw. He came into this tournament in fine form after troubling Roger Federer with his creative strokeplay in the third round of the French Open. He may have a modest ranking of No 65 in the world, but has had some fine results at Queen's, including a win over Rafael Nadal in 2007, the year when he held a championship point against Andy Roddick. The slipperiness of the lush, dark green grass was brought home by the second point of the match, which saw Mahut take a tumble as he sprinted towards his backhand side. But while Mahut soon recovered his poise, Murray could have been forgiven for feeling a little alarmed. His creaky back could do without any further aggravation 13 days before the start of Wimbledon. Any sense of inhibition was likely to prove fatal against Mahut's excellent serve, which proved so unreturnable in that 11-hour marathon he played against John Isner a couple of years ago. And the Frenchmen went for his returns too, often connecting so well that Murray could only thrust out a desperate racket as the ball went fizzing past him. "You need to play more against the top players to get used to the level, the atmosphere," said Mahut afterwards. I played twice against Federer this year, twice against [Tomas] Berdych, once against Djokovic, and I think I was ready to win today. Maybe they will talk about this match for a while and not only the Isner match. Murray's surprise exit leaves the AEGON Championships looking a little barren of recognisable names, especially as Andy Roddick also lost on Wednesday and Lleyton Hewitt went out on Monday. The favourite for the title must now be second seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who eliminated the last Briton standing, Jamie Baker, by a 6-3, 6-2 scoreline in the next match on Centre Court. It hasn't been a vintage performance from the home brigade: five men entered the tournament, and the only win they had between them came from Monday's all-British showdown between Baker and Oliver Golding. All of which is in stark contrast to results at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham, where Elena Baltacha's win over Kai-Chen Chang on Wednesday morning completed a clean sweep: six wins out of six for the British women in the first round. Baltacha then lost her second match of the day 6-7, 3-6 to Heather Watson - her first loss to a British rival for four years.