Queen's Club Championships
Queen's Club Championships | |
---|---|
ATP Tour | |
Founded | 1886 |
Editions | 124 (2023) |
Location | London United Kingdom |
Venue | The Queen's Club |
Category | Grand Prix tennis circuit (1970–1989) ATP World Series / ATP International Series / ATP World Tour 250 series (1990–2014) ATP World Tour 500 series (2015–) |
Surface | Grass / outdoors |
Draw | 32S / 32Q / 24D |
Prize money | €2,195,175 (2023) |
Website | queensclub.co.uk |
Current champions (2024) | |
Men's singles | Tommy Paul |
Men's doubles | Neal Skupski Michael Venus |
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for men's tennis, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. It is currently advertised as the "cinch Championships" after its title sponsor.
Queen's is one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, and serves as a warm-up for Wimbledon. Andy Murray has won a record five titles between 2009 and 2016.
History
[edit]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.[1] 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 1915 to 1918 and 1940 to 1945. Between 1970 and 1989 the Championships were part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit. The women's tournament was discontinued after the 1973 edition and from 1974 until 1976 no men's tournament was held.[2] and by this point the tournament was known as the London Grass Court Championships. From 1977 it's been called the Queens Club Championships. The event is currently an ATP Tour 500 series tournament on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour and was upgraded from an ATP World Tour 250 series in 2015.[3][4] 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 tournament. It then won it again in 2018 and 2019.
During the 2004 singles tournament, Andy Roddick set the then world record for the fastest serve, recorded at 153 mph (246.2 km/h) during a straight-set victory over Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan in the quarter-finals.[5]
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
[edit]The Queen's Club Championships are held every year in June. They start one week after the clay-court French Open and conclude one week before the start of the grass court Wimbledon Championships, which are held just 4 miles (6 km) away. The equivalent warm-up event for women is the Eastbourne International, although this is held one week later.[citation needed]
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.[6]
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. They were the Queen's Club Championships, Gerry Weber Open, Eastbourne International, and the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships. An additional tournament is played on grass in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, in the week immediately after Wimbledon.[citation needed]
Coverage
[edit]This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2013) |
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.[7] It broadcasts the event mainly on BBC Two as well as on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sport online. It was shown in High Definition for the first time in 2009.
Since 2018, Amazon Prime[8] 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.[9]
Sponsorship
[edit]From 1979 until 2008, the tournament was sponsored by Stella Artois, and thus called the Stella Artois Championships.[10] In 2009 the tournament was renamed the Aegon Championships following a comprehensive sponsorship deal between Lawn Tennis Association and Aegon, which also led to renaming of Birmingham and Eastbourne grass court events.[11] In 2018, Fever-Tree began sponsoring the tournament. The online car selling website cinch became the title sponsor of the championships in 2021.[12]
Past finals
[edit]Men's singles
[edit]Women's singles
[edit]Fulham
[edit]Year | Champion | Runner-up | Score |
---|---|---|---|
1881 | M. Raikes | Miss Burleigh | 5-0 5-2 |
1882–1883 | No women's event staged
| ||
1884 | Maud Watson | Edith Coleridge Cole | 6-4 6-2 2-6 6-1 |
1885 | Maud Watson | Lilian Watson | 6-2 6-3 |
1886 | Blanche Bingley | Edith Davies | 6-1 6-1 |
1887 | Blanche Bingley | B. James | 6-4 6-3 |
1888 | Blanche Bingley Hillyard | May Jacks | 6-4 6-3 |
1889 | May Jacks | Maud Shackle | 6-2 6-1 |
London
[edit]Men's doubles
[edit]Since 1969:
(Note: Tournament dates back to 1890)
Women's doubles
[edit]Year | Champions | Runners-up | Score |
---|---|---|---|
1971 | Rosie Casals Billie Jean King |
Mary–Ann Curtis Valerie Ziegenfuss |
6–2, 8–6 |
1972 | Rosie Casals Billie Jean King |
Brenda Kirk Pat Walkden |
5–7, 6–0, 6–2 |
1973 | Rosie Casals Billie Jean King |
Françoise Dürr Betty Stöve |
4–6, 6–3, 7–5 |
Junior championship finals
[edit]Year | Champion | Runner-up |
---|---|---|
The Junior Championship | ||
2007 | Uladzimir Ignatik | Gastão Elias |
2006 | Iain Atkinson | Nicolas Santos |
2003 | Florin Mergea | Chris Guccione |
2002 | Alex Bogdanović | Dudi Sela |
The HSBC Junior Invitation Cup | ||
2001 | Santiago González | Andrew Banks |
The David Lloyd Leisure Cup | ||
2000 | Lee Childs | Arnaud Segodo |
1999 | Jarkko Nieminen | Lee Childs |
1998 | Edgardo Massa | Cheng Wei-jen |
The Sam Whitbread Cup | ||
1997 | Nicolás Massú | Xavier Malisse |
1996 | Jaymon Crabb | Arvind Parmar |
1995 | Alejandro Hernández | Jamie Delgado |
1994 | Jamie Delgado | Nicolás Lapentti |
1993 | Neville Godwin | David Škoch |
1992 | Grant Doyle | Lucas Arnold |
1991 | Leander Paes | Nicolas Kischkewitz |
1990 | Andrew Foster | Dirk Dier |
Statistics
[edit]Champions by country
[edit]Men's singles
[edit]Country | Winner | First title | Last title |
---|---|---|---|
United States (USA) | 34 | 1905 | 2024 |
Great Britain (GBR) | 31 | 1890 | 2016 |
Australia (AUS) | 26 | 1919 | 2006 |
Germany (GER)[b] | 6 | 1939 | 1996 |
Spain (SPA) | 5 | 1960 | 2023 |
New Zealand (NZL) | 4 | 1907 | 1912 |
South Africa (RSA) | 2 | 1951 | 1992 |
Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 2 | 1989 | 1990 |
Croatia (CRO) | 2 | 2012 | 2018 |
Italy (ITA) | 2 | 2021 | 2022 |
Japan (JPN) | 1 | 1921 | 1921 |
Canada (CAN) | 1 | 1927 | 1927 |
India (IND) | 1 | 1959 | 1959 |
Romania (ROU) | 1 | 1973 | 1973 |
Mexico (MEX) | 1 | 1977 | 1977 |
Sweden (SWE) | 1 | 1991 | 1991 |
Bulgaria (BUL) | 1 | 2014 | 2014 |
Men's doubles
[edit]Country | Winner | First title | Last title |
---|---|---|---|
United States (USA) | 33 | 1969 | 2023 |
Australia (AUS) | 23 | 1969 | 2006 |
France (FRA) | 9 | 1986 | 2021 |
Canada (CAN) | 5 | 1999 | 2012 |
Sweden (SWE) | 4 | 1992 | 1998 |
Great Britain (GBR) | 4 | 1990 | 2024 |
Netherlands (NED) | 3 | 1970 | 1973 |
South Africa (RSA) | 3 | 1978 | 2009 |
Zimbabwe (ZIM) | 3 | 2002 | 2006 |
Croatia (CRO) | 3 | 2022 | 2023 |
India (IND) | 2 | 1977 | 1977 |
Bahamas (BAH) | 2 | 2003 | 2007 |
Serbia (SER) | 2 | 2008 | 2010 |
Brazil (BRA) | 2 | 2014 | 2017 |
Russia (RUS) | 1 | 2009 | 2009 |
Israel (ISR) | 1 | 2010 | 2010 |
Belarus (BLR) | 1 | 2012 | 2012 |
Austria (AUT) | 1 | 2014 | 2014 |
Spain (SPA) | 1 | 2019 | 2019 |
New Zealand (NZL) | 1 | 2024 | 2024 |
Players and winners
[edit]- Most titles – Andy Murray (6) (5 singles, 1 doubles)
- Most Singles titles – Andy Murray (5).
- Most Singles finals – Major Ritchie (8).
- Youngest winner – Boris Becker, 17 years 207 days in 1985.
- Oldest winner – Major Ritchie, 38 years old in 1909 (Open era oldest winner was Feliciano López at 37 years old in 2019)
- Lowest-ranked champion – Feliciano López, ranked 113 in the world in 2019.
- Lowest-ranked finalist – Laurence Tieleman, ranked 253 in the world in 1998.
- Winners of both events – Pete Sampras in 1995 (doubles with Todd Martin), Mark Philippoussis in 1997 (doubles with Patrick Rafter), and Feliciano López in 2019 (doubles with Andy Murray).
- 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 champions have played at the Queen's Club Championships.
- 10 players have completed the Queen's/Wimbledon double, winning both events back to back, including Don Budge, Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Carlos Alcaraz; only McEnroe, Sampras and Murray have completed this twice.
Attendance
[edit]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
[edit]- British Covered Court Championships – indoor tournament played at the Queen's Club between 1895 and 1971
References
[edit]- ^ Queens Club tournament.
- ^ "$63, 260 Curtain-Raiser to Wimbledon". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 April 1974. p. 12.
- ^ "ATP Announces 2015 ATP World Tour Calendar". ATP. 10 February 2014.
- ^ "Tennis stretches grass season to six weeks". SBS. 11 February 2014.
- ^ "Ivo Karlovic sets new world record for fastest serve". BBC. 6 March 2011.
- ^ "ATP to boost total prize money, add time between Roland Garros and Wimbledon". tennis.com. AP. 8 November 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
- ^ "BBC to Broadcast Queen's until 2024 – Media Centre". BBC. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
- ^ "ATP And ATP Media Expand Partnership With Amazon Prime Video". ATP World Tour. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
- ^ LTA – Aegon Championships – Behind the Scenes with the Ball Girls at The Queen's Club
- ^ "Stella Artois ends 30-year tennis sponsorship". PRWeek. 17 March 2008. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
- ^ Olley, James (5 June 2009). "New Queen's Club sponsor set for a £30m revolution". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 30 March 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
- ^ "cinch to become new title sponsor of the LTA's Queen's Club Championships". LTA. 23 December 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2021.