The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP World Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour. It is currently advertised as the ‘Fever-Tree Championships’ after its title sponsor. Queen's is considered one of the most prestigious grass court tournaments, as well as one of the oldest tennis tournaments in the world, and serves as a warm-up for Wimbledon. Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt dominated the tournament in the early 21st century, each winning four titles. Andy Murray won a record five titles between 2009 and 2016. Andy Roddick has called the courts at the Queen's Club "arguably the best in the world".
History
Originally known as the London Athletic Club Tournament, established in 1881 at Stamford Bridge, Fulham. In 1884 the tournament was given the title of the Championship of London, 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 1913–1918 and 1940–1946. 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. The event is currently an ATP World Tour 500 series tournament on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour and was upgraded from an ATP World Tour 250 series in 2015. The tournament was voted ATP Tournament of the Year for four years consecutively between 2013-2014 when it was an ATP 250 tournament and between 2015-2016 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 during a straight-set victory over Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan 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 and conclude one week before the start of the grass court Wimbledon Championships, which are held just away. The equivalent warm-up event for women is the Eastbourne International, 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. 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.
From 1979 until 2008, the tournament was sponsored by Stella Artois, 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 and Aegon, which also led to renaming of Birmingham and Eastbourne grass court events. In 2018, Fever-Tree began sponsoring the tournament – their first title sponsorship of a sporting event.
Past finals
Men's singles
Women's singles
Fulham
London
Men's doubles
Since 1969:
Women's doubles
Junior championship finals
Statistics
Champions by country
Men's singles
Country
Winner
First title
Last title
33
1905
2010
31
1890
2016
26
1919
2006
6
1939
1996
4
1907
1912
4
1960
2019
2
2012
2018
2
1951
1992
2
1989
1990
1
1921
1921
1
1927
1927
1
1959
1959
1
1973
1973
1
1977
1977
1
1991
1991
1
2014
2014
Men's doubles
Country
Winner
First title
Last title
32
1969
2013
23
1969
2006
5
1999
2012
4
1992
1998
4
1986
2016
3
1970
1973
3
1978
2009
3
2002
2006
3
1990
2019
2
1977
1977
2
2003
2007
2
2008
2010
2
2014
2017
1
2009
2009
1
2010
2010
1
2012
2012
1
2014
2014
1
2019
2019
Players and winners
Most titles – Andy Murray
Most Singles titles – Andy Murray.
Most Singles finals – Major Ritchie.
Youngest winner – Boris Becker, 17 years 207 days in 1985.
Oldest winner – Major Ritchie, 38 years old in 1909
Lowest-ranked champion – Feliciano López, ranked 113 in the world in 2019.
Lowest-ranked finalist – Laurence Tieleman, ranked 253 in the world in 1998.
Most prize money received – Andy Murray €1,064,565 + $15,275
22 of the last 25 Wimbledon 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, Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal 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.
