ATP HERITAGE PROGRAMME
ATP Heritage: The Kings Of Queen's Club
Queen's Club Honour Roll
Two months before he debuted at No. 1 in the ATP’s new rankings system, Ilie Nastase claimed his first grass-court title at The Queen’s Club - one of 14 trophies he’d lift that season.
Forty years on, the Aegon Championships continues to be a happy hunting ground for World No. 1s. Located five miles north of the All England Club and at the start of the four-week grass swing, Queen’s serves as an ideal form guide for Wimbledon.
Starting with John McEnroe’s triumph in 1979, the ATP World Tour 250 tournament has been won 24 times by players who have reached No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings during their careers.
The distinguished list of champions, in addition to Nastase and McEnroe, includes Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal - in total 10 of the 16 year-end No. 1s honoured in the ATP Heritage Programme.
Seven of those players have won The Queen’s Club title numerous times, with McEnroe, Becker, Hewitt and Roddick leading the way with four apiece.
“This is one of the most special tournaments in my career,” said Hewitt, now 32, on his return to the Aegon Championships this week. “The prestige, you look at all the guys who’ve won it before me and after me, there are so many quality players. To have my name on the honour board here is fantastic.”
It took a monumental effort for Hewitt to add his name to the list of champions for the first time in 2000. Nineteen years of age, he defeated Goran Ivanisevic and Cedric Pioline before dethroning Sampras 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Sampras went on to win the Wimbledon title a couple weeks later and Ivanisevic the year after.
“It was obviously a big stage of my career to beat real grass-court specialists at that time, and I probably wasn’t the favourite to play my best on this surface,” Hewitt said, recalling his victory. “That gave me a lot of self-belief that I could step it up on this surface as well, and really play my game more from the back of the court... Obviously to knock off a guy like Pete Sampras on any grass court is a big thrill.”
Hewitt beat Sampras again in 2001 en route to the successful Queen’s defence and won the title for a third straight year in 2002, this time as the youngest World No. 1. He crowned that grass-court season with the Wimbledon trophy, joining Sampras (1995, ’99), Becker (1985), Connors (1982) and McEnroe (1981, ’84) as players to complete the Queen’s Club-Wimbledon double.
Nadal became the newest player to join the group in 2008. Two months before he ascended to No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic in the Queen’s final 7-6(6), 7-5 to win his first title on grass. He then lifted the Wimbledon trophy by prevailing against five-time defending champion Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7 in a match for the ages.
“Queen's is a big, important tournament played at a very nice, traditional club and it was an amazing feeling to win it in 2008 and then to fulfill my dream by winning Wimbledon,” said Nadal.
With two Aegon Championships titles under his belt and a current ranking of No. 2, Great Britain’s Andy Murray could be next in line to continue the great tradition of World No. 1s at The Queen’s Club.