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. Originally known as the London Grass Court Championships, the tournament traces back to 1884 when a tennis tournament was held at the London Athletic Club. One year later the tournament was given the title of the London Championships, and it was held outdoors, on grass. In 1890 the tournament moved to its current location, the Queen's Club. Between 1970 and 1989 it was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit. The event is now an ATP World Tour 250 series tournament on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. From 1979 until 2008, the tournament was sponsored by Stella Artois, and thus called the Stella Artois Championships. In 2009 the tournament was renamed as 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.
The Queen's Club Championships is held every year in June in the week after the French Open. Grass courts are the least common playing surface for top-level events on the ATP Tour (excluding Challenger Series events). The 2009 schedule included only four grass court tournaments in the run-up to Wimbledon. Alongside Queen's, there are the Gerry Weber Open, the 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.
Outside Wimbledon, this is the grass-court tournament with the largest draw size. In addition, it enjoys full coverage on the BBC in the UK, and was shown in High Definition for the first time in 2009. Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt have dominated the tournament in recent times, each winning four titles. Four titles is the most anyone has won at Queen's with famous names such as Emerson and McEnroe added to Hewitt and Roddick. Andy Roddick has called the courts at the Queen's Club "arguably the best in the world".
Famous quotes containing the words queen and/or club:
“I do not so much rejoice that God hath made me to be a Queen, as to be a Queen over so thankful a people.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“We have ourselves to answer for.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly and Mirror of Fashions, pp. 24-5 (January 1870)