The British summer has been more stop than start so far and, yesterday, Andy Murray spent more time in the players' lounge twiddling his thumbs than he did on the court as rain left everyone at the Aegon Championships feeling rather frustrated.

When play was finally called off for the day just after 6.30pm at London's Queen's Club, the Scot led Nicolas Mahut 6-3, 2-2 but will now have to play twice today, providing he finishes off the Frenchman.

There are few things worse for a man with a bad back than a cool, damp day on a slippery grass court. Having missed the French Open because of a disc-related problem, Murray understandably was unenthusiastic about coming back on to court last night, even when rain abated for the odd half hour.

The good news for the world No.2 is that, in the hour or so they were able to play, he showed he is in good touch, serving well and crucially, moving well.

Twelve months ago, Murray was beaten by Mahut at the same stage and the Frenchman is always dangerous on grass, where his serve-and- volley, attacking game is a reminder of a forgotten era. Murray looked sharp from the start and broke in the seventh game with a delicate forehand pass after Mahut's drop volley was not short enough, while a beautiful running top-spin lob sealed the set two games later.

With occasional spots of rain slowing down the drying time of the courts, Murray was reluctant to risk any injury so close to Wimbledon and, eventually, when the rain became heavier, organisers called things off.

On the day when the Lawn Tennis Association announced that Aegon has extended its multi-million pound deal as lead sponsor until 2017, it would have been pleasing for them to see more signs that British tennis is about more than just Murray.

For the second round in succession, Dan Evans produced a performance worthy of a top-50 player, following up his win over Argentina's Guido Pella with a 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 defeat of the world No.38, Jarkko Nieminen. In terms of ranking, it is Evans' best win and the hero of Britain's Davis Cup victory over Russia in April now takes on Juan Martin Del Potro in the third round.

Playing well above his ranking of 277, Evans led Nieminen by a set and a break before the experienced Finn hit back to level and then lead 4-2 in the final set. However, Evans won four straight games to complete victory after another rain delay in the final game.

In the last rain break, Evans had a quick chat with Murray and his coach, Ivan Lendl, though the talk was more golf than tennis. "We just talked a bit about the golf, the US Open," he said. "It [being around Lendl] was pretty intimidating, I have to say. He didn't like my pick of Sergio Garcia much to win it. He said [Steve] Stricker was a dark horse but he can't see past Tiger Woods, so I wasn't going to comment on that."

Evans' victory was worth 20 ranking points, which will take him very close to the 250 mark but which came too late to earn him a wild card into the main draw at Wimbledon. The Lawn Tennis Association's rule of thumb is that only players inside the top 250 should be considered for a full wild card and Evans learned yesterday that he will be only be given a wild card into the qualifying event.

"I'm grateful that I got a wild card into the qualies [qualifiers], to be honest," he said. "I wasn't expecting a main draw [wild card], any way. I wasn't inside the criteria and I think it's good that they're being strong with it, because then there's no grey area. You're either inside 250 or you're not, especially for the older ones. I think it's good that we have to play qualies to get a chance to earn our way in, you know."

The only exception to the 250-rule was a wild card into the main draw for Kyle Edmund – he played his first ATP Tour match here on Tuesday – while another went to James Ward (215). Glasgow's Jamie Baker received a wild card into the qualifying draw, while he and Edmund will go straight into the main draw of the doubles event.

The men's success was in stark contrast to events in Birmingham where Britain's women's top three, Laura Robson, Heather Watson and Johanna Konta, all went out in round two of the Aegon Classic.

Robson's first match on grass this summer ended in a 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Daniela Hantuchova; Watson lost 6-4, 6-3 to Russia's Ally Kudryavtseva and Konta went down 6-4, 6-1 to Kristina Mladenovic, of France.

There was a big boost, though, for Scotland's Elena Baltacha, the former British No.1 who was yesterday confirmed as one of the wild cards into the women's event at Wimbledon as she beat the top seed, Misaki Doi, of Japan, 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round of the ITF Women's Circuit challenger event in Nottingham.