The Best Men's Queen's Club Finals From Becker to Murray

Forbes

5 hours ago

After qualifier Tatjana Maria won the first WTA Queen's Club tournament for 52 years on Sunday, the ATP 500 event in West Kensington, London returns from June 16. The venue's Centre Court is named after Andy Murray, one of many Grand Slam champions who have won the men's Queen's Club title over the years. There's a $538,000 prize for the 2025 champion.
John McEnroe, Andy Roddick, Ivan Lendl, Lleyton Hewitt and Pete Sampras are just some of the other legendary champions of this prestigious pre-Wimbledon grass court event. Here are five of the best ever finals.
Boris Becker had already won two Wimbledons and a Queen's Club title by the time he entered the West London event in 1987. The German was a big favorite against a 34-year-old Jimmy Connors. 'The Brash Basher of Belleville' was without a tournament win for over two years.
However, Connors had other ideas and returned the 19-year-old's serve superbly, taking the first set tiebreak and then having chances to go a double break up in the second before losing 7-6, 3-6, 4-6.
'For one-and-a-half sets today, I could not get my timing. Jimmy was running around better than I was, even though he could almost be my father,' said the German.
Connors took out his frustration a fortnight later against Mikael Pernfors in a match for the ages at Wimbledon, coming back from 1-6, 1-6, 1-4 to win in five. Becker showed more vulnerabilities on serve, losing to Australian Peter Doohan in the second round as his efforts to win a third consecutive SW19 title ended.
Home favorite Tim Henman threatened to win Queen's in the late 1990s. His nemesis, Pete Sampras, stood in the way.
Henman was an old-fashioned grass court expert who bore the pre-Murray pressure of trying to win Wimbledon with a British stiff upper lip. He outlasted 'Pistol Pete' in a first set tiebreak to raise the crowd volume but lost the second 6-4.
Sampras was without a tournament victory in 1999 and Henman had three break points at 2-1 in the final set to expose that weakness. He missed them and the second seed prevailed to claim a second Queen's Championshi .
This injected new life into Sampras who went on a 24-match winning streak, a run that included his sixth Wimbledon title in seven years. He beat Henman in the semifinals on Independence Day.
Andy Murray won five Queen's Club Championships from 2009 to 2016, the year he finally became world No. 1. The Scot was denied the normal weekend trophy lift after Sunday's play was washed out.
In the spirit of the 2001 Wimbledon final between Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter, a capacity Monday crowd came to fill the seats with 1,000 watching on a big screen outside too. The Frenchman had disposed of Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and took the first set 6-3, diving around like a 1980s Boris Becker. Murray fought back by winning the next on the tiebreak.
The two finalists tussled in a tight third and Murray got his way when he finally broke the Frenchman's serve. He even had time for a tweener at the net at 5-3 up.
"This has been one of the most fun weeks I've had on the tour. I've loved it,' said the British No. 1 afterwards. Murray showed his Slam credentials by making it to the Wimbledon semifinals the following month. Two years later, he lifted the Wimbledon crown.
One big name missing from the roll call of Queen's Club winners is Novak Djokovic. The Serb hadn't played at the event for eight years when he accepted a wild card invite in 2018 to try and get some confidence going before Wimbledon.
Number one seed Marin Cilic, who Roger Federer beat in the Australian Open final that year, was waiting. Djokovic's form was in a funk coming into the tournament and he left rather despondent after a titanic match which was a shade under three hours.
Djokovic appeared on course after claiming the first set 7-5 and then going 4-1 up in the second set tiebreak. Everything unravelled thereafter as the 12-time major champion became indecisive, opening the door for Cilic to power through and claim the third 6-3.
This was the Croat's second Queen's Club title, one that he had to work much harder for than the 2012 edition when opponent David Nalbandian was disqualified for inadvertently injuring a linesman.
Feliciano Lopez was a regular at Queen's Club and had been desperately close to winning the trophy after having a match point against Grigor Dimitrov in 2014.
The 35-year-old Spaniard was playing Marin Cilic who would go all the way to the final at Wimbledon a month later. Lopez had fully deserved his spot in the final after beating Stan Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych and Dimitrov in the previous rounds.
Despite losing a tight first set 6-4, Lopez strode away with a second set tiebreak. Both men were playing tennis of such high quality that they were broken only once all week. The deciding set was destined to be another shootout and it was an epic as Lopez edged it 10-8.
He became the oldest winner of the Queen's Club Championship in the professional era. Lopez broke that record himself when he secured a second title two years later at the age of 37. He also won the doubles alongside Murray which started barely half an hour after his singles win.
The Queen's Club Championships is one of the best ATP 500 events out there and gets the juices flowing for the only major still on grass. Carlos Alcaraz won Queen's in 2023 and then followed it up with his maiden Wimbledon crown. Can the Spaniard repeat the double and make it six out of six majors?