Fever-Tree Surprises at Queen’s Club
This was Fever-Tree’s second year sponsoring the now well established Queen’s Club grass court tournament and from all accounts it promised to be even better than the previous year when the draw was first announced. Judging from the number of top players entered with the likes of Kevin Anderson, last year’s finalist as seconds seed, Feliciano Lopez last year’s surprise winner who was awarded a wild card, his current rankings would not have enabled him a direct entry as well as Argentinian heart throb and third seed, Juan Martin del Potro who last year was forced to pull our injured out at the last minute. Also down to play were Greece’s new kid on the block, Stephanos Tsitsipas, the number one seed, Canada’s teenage sensation, Felix Auger-Aliassime who was seeded eighth and the unpredictable Aussi Nick Kygious, players everyone was looking forward to watching.
What this amounted to was an incredible feast of interesting and potentially exciting matches to look forward to but having observed the tournament’s transformation from a cosy 250 to a full blown 500 event, the event has now grown in both quality and quantity and attracts well over 100,000 spectators.
All this bears well for tournament organisers but it’s a totally different story for members who each year suffer in silence as the club transforms itself into a top class tennis event. This all takes place within fourteen acres of the club’s grounds and involves almost three months of disruptions from the beginning of May to the middle of July. First it’s the construction of stands and corporate marquees that involves huge lorries driving in and out of the the club’s grounds disgorging tons of materials and returning immediately afterwards to take everything away. Sadly it’s during these weeks that the club is barely a members club with swarms of workmen, security staff and tournament officials milling around the grounds something members quietly tolerate. Court use for all racket sports is restricted during this time but since the tournament now starts a week later some grass courts have become available for members from early May depending of course, on the weather. Before this grass courts were only made available to members after the tournament finished. However, the week before and the week of the tournament no indoor or outdoor courts are free for members’s use.
Even as late as early July, piles of remnants are still noticeable with workmen wandering around the grounds finishing off the last few jobs left over from dismantling the tournament. However over the next two to three weeks facilities gradually return to normal. First it is the restaurant, bar area and TV room yet full use of indoor and outdoor courts including some grass courts is still restricted as are the gyms and parking spaces. It is something of an enigma that while fee paying club members appear happy to put up with these disruptions each year, even though during this period the club hardly operates as a private members club. Supposedly the added bonus for members is being able to watch the many outstanding matches on Centre Court free, which by the way is sacrosanct and never used by members. There is also the opportunities to rub shoulders with top players wondering in and out of the club that appeals to many tennis loving members. In fact this year the Fever-Tree Championships was voted the best tournament of all 500 tournaments by players.
Fortunately this year’s event coughed up plenty of unexpected surprises not withstanding the return to professional tennis of Andy Murray who after spending six month recovering from a hip operation opted to play doubles with Feliciano Lopez which paid dividends as they were the surprise winners after beating Rajeev Ram and Britain’s Joe Salisbury in the finals. Before the doubles finals, Lopez gave us another display of scintillatings tennis when he beat France’s Gilles Simon in three sets. A surprise win for a second successive year for the honorary member of Queen’s club.
www.fever-treechampionships.com
www.atpworldtour.com
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Apologies this has taken so long … !