The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
players, held on
grass court
A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament.
Although grass c ...
s at the
Queen's Club
The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "cinch Championships" for sponsorship reas ...
in
West Kensington
West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includin ...
, London. The event is part of the
ATP Tour 500
The ATP 500 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 500'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series Gold'', and ''ATP Championship Series'') are the fourth highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tourn ...
series on the
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...
(ATP) Tour. It is currently advertised as the "
cinch Championships" after its
title sponsor
Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
.
Queen's is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, and serves as a warm-up for
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
.
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
has won a record five titles between 2009 and 2016.
History
![Andy Murray (14399419246)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Andy_Murray_%2814399419246%29.jpg)
Originally known as the London Athletic Club Tournament or officially London Athletic Club Open Tournament established in 1881 at Stamford Bridge, Fulham. In 1885 the tournament was given the title of the Championship of London then later London Championships, and it was held on outdoor grass courts. In 1890, the tournament moved to its current location, the Queen's Club and consisted of a men's and women's singles event. In 1903 a men's doubles event was added followed in 1905 by the mixed doubles competition. In 1915 the addition of a women's doubles event completed the programme. The two World Wars interrupted the tournament from 1913 to 1918 and 1940–1946. Between 1970 and 1989 the Championships were part of the
Grand Prix tennis circuit
The Grand Prix tennis circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players that existed from 1970 to 1989. The Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis (WCT) were the two predecessors to the current tour for male players, the ATP Tour, with t ...
. The women's tournament was discontinued after the 1973 edition and from 1974 until 1976 no men's tournament was held. and by this point the tournament was known as the London Grass Court Championships. From 1977 its been called the Queens Club Championships. The event is currently an
ATP Tour 500
The ATP 500 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 500'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series Gold'', and ''ATP Championship Series'') are the fourth highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tourn ...
series tournament on the
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...
(ATP) Tour and was upgraded from an
ATP World Tour 250 series
The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam (te ...
in 2015. The tournament was voted
ATP Tournament of the Year for four years consecutively between 2013 and 2014 when it was an
ATP 250 tournament and between 2015 and 2016 when it was an
ATP 500
The ATP 500 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 500'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series Gold'', and ''ATP Championship Series'') are the fourth highest tier of annual men's tennis tournament after the four Grand Slam tourn ...
tournament. It then won it again in 2018 and 2019.
During the 2004 singles tournament,
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open ...
set the then world record for the fastest serve, recorded at 153 mph (246.2 km/h) during a straight-set victory over
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
's
Paradorn Srichaphan
Paradorn Srichaphan ( th, ภราดร ศรีชาพันธุ์; ; ; born 14 June 1979) is a retired professional tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or betw ...
in the quarter-finals.
In 2016, Andy Murray won the singles title for a record fifth time. Seven men have won four singles titles; Major Ritchie, Anthony Wilding, Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick.
Schedule
The Queen's Club Championships are held every year in June. They start one week after the clay-court
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
and conclude one week before the start of the grass court
Wimbledon Championships
The Wimbledon Championships, commonly known simply as Wimbledon, is the oldest tennis tournament in the world and is widely regarded as the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, All England Club in ...
, which are held just away. The equivalent warm-up event for women is the
Eastbourne International
The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour ...
, although this is held one week later.
Up to 2014, the break between the French Open and Wimbledon was just two weeks, and the Queen's Club Championships started the day after the French Open's men's final. This changed when Wimbledon moved back a week to expand the length of the grass court season.
Grass courts are the least common playing surface for top-level events on the ATP World Tour. The 2009 schedule included only four grass court tournaments in the run-up to
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
. They were the Queen's Club Championships,
Gerry Weber Open
The Halle Open is a men's tennis tournament held in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Held since 1993, the event is played on four outdoor grass courts and is a part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the ATP Tour schedule.
Between 1993 and 2018 ...
,
Eastbourne International
The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour ...
, and the
Rosmalen Grass Court Championships
The Rosmalen Grass Court Championships, branded by its sponsored name as the Libéma Open since 2018, (formerly known as the Continental Grass Court Championships, Heineken Trophy, Ordina Open, UNICEF Open, Topshelf Open and RICOH Open), is a pro ...
. An additional tournament is played on grass in
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...
, USA, in the week immediately after Wimbledon.
Coverage
![Flickr - Carine06 - Marin Cilic interviewed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Flickr_-_Carine06_-_Marin_Cilic_interviewed.jpg)
The BBC has covered the tournament since 1979 and in recent years it has shown the tournament in full after originally only broadcasting the final four days of the event. The BBC has a contract in place until 2024. It broadcasts the event mainly on BBC Two as well as on
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...
and BBC Sport online. It was shown in
High Definition for the first time in 2009.
Since 2018,
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service from Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- ...
has also broadcast from The Queen's Club in the UK.
The
ball girls for the Aegon Championships are provided by
Nonsuch High School and
St Philomena's Catholic High School for Girls, two schools in the London Borough of Sutton.
Sponsorship
From 1979 until 2008, the tournament was sponsored by
Stella Artois
Stella Artois ( ) is a pilsner beer, first brewed in 1926 by Brouwerij Artois in Leuven, Belgium. In its original form, the beer is 5.2 per cent ABV, the country's standard for pilsners. The beer is also sold in other countries like the UK, Ire ...
, and thus called the Stella Artois Championships. In 2009 the tournament was renamed the Aegon Championships following a comprehensive sponsorship deal between
Lawn Tennis Association
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
Founded in 1888, the LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. It believes that tennis can provide "physical ...
and
Aegon, which also led to renaming of
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
and
Eastbourne
Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...
grass court events. In 2018,
Fever-Tree
Fevertree Drinks plc, known as Fever-Tree, is a British producer of premium drink mixers, founded by Charles Rolls and Tim Warrillow in 2004.
The company's name comes from its initial product, a tonic water. Their tonic was flavoured with qui ...
began sponsoring the tournament. The online car selling website
cinch became the title sponsor of the championships in 2021.
Past finals
Men's singles
Women's singles
Fulham
London
Men's doubles
Since 1969:
''(Note: Tournament dates back to 1890)''
Women's doubles
Junior championship finals
Statistics
Champions by country
Men's singles
Men's doubles
Players and winners
*Most titles –
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
(6) (5 singles, 1 doubles)
*Most Singles titles – Andy Murray (5).
*Most Singles finals –
Major Ritchie (8).
*Youngest winner –
Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker (, ; born 22 November 1967) is a German former world No. 1 tennis player. Becker was successful from the start of his career, winning the Wimbledon Championships at the age of 17. He ultimately won six Grand Slam singles tit ...
, 17 years 207 days in 1985.
*Oldest winner – Major Ritchie, 38 years old in 1909 (Open era oldest winner was
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
at 37 years old in 2019)
*Lowest-ranked champion –
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
, ranked 113 in the world in 2019.
*Lowest-ranked finalist –
Laurence Tieleman
Laurence Tieleman (born 14 November 1972) is a former tennis player from Italy.
Personal life
Tieleman has a Dutch father and an Italian mother, both working for the European Community. He began playing tennis at age seven and attended the Nick ...
, ranked 253 in the world in 1998.
*Winners of both events –
Pete Sampras
Petros "Pete" Sampras ( el, Πέτρος Σάμπρας; born August 12, 1971) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His professional career began in 1988 and ended at the 2002 US Open, which he won, defeating longtime rival Andre ...
in 1995 (doubles with
Todd Martin
Todd Martin (born July 8, 1970) is an American retired tennis player. He reached the men's singles final at the 1994 Australian Open and the 1999 US Open and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4.
Playing career
Martin was bor ...
),
Mark Philippoussis
Mark Anthony Philippoussis ( ; born 7 November 1976) is an Australian former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winni ...
in 1997 (doubles with Patrick Rafter), and
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
in 2019 (doubles with
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
).
*Most prize money received – Andy Murray €1,064,565 + $15,275 (£850,007 at 19/06/16 exchange rates)
*22 of the last 25
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
champions have played at the Queen's Club Championships.
*Several players have completed the Queen's/Wimbledon double, winning both events back to back, including
Don Budge
John Donald Budge (June 13, 1915 – January 26, 2000) was an American tennis player. He is most famous as the first tennis player — male or female, and still the only American male — to win the Grand Slam, and to win all four Grand Slam ev ...
, Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt,
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
and Andy Murray; only McEnroe, Sampras and Murray have completed this twice.
Attendance
Pre-2017 the Centre Court held 6,479 spectators. From 2017 onwards, capacity increased by over 2,000 to almost 9,000 seats. The highest total attendance for the week was in 2003, when 52,553 people attended the event; The highest attendance for one day was 8,362 on 11 June 2003.
See also
*
British Covered Court Championships
The British Covered Court Championships (BCCC) was an indoor tennis event held from 1885 through 1971 and played in London, England. The dates of the tournament fluctuated between October and March.
History
For its first five years the tournament ...
– indoor tournament played at the Queen's Club between 1895 and 1971
References
Notes
External links
Official tournament websiteThe Queen's Club websiteATP tournament profileLTA tournament profile
{{coord, 51.488, N, 0.212, W, region:GB-KEC_type:landmark, display=title
Grass court tennis tournaments
Tennis tournaments in England
Tennis in London
ATP Tour 250
Recurring sporting events established in 1890
History of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham
Sport in Hammersmith and Fulham
1890 establishments in England