Tennis • London • The Queen’s Club | Fever-Tree Has Great Players – Wawrinka, Dimitrov, and Raonic & More

Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller (front) in action against Marin Cilic (back) of Croatia during their second round match at the Fever Tree Championship at Queen’s Club in London, Britain, 20 June 2018. EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL

 

 

By Ricky Dimon

 

Stan Wawrinka, Grigor Dimitrov, and Milos Raonic joined an already stellar 2019 Fever-Tree Championships earlier this week. Dimitrov is a former champion at Queen’s Club (2014), while Wawrinka is a three-time Grand Slam winner and Raonic reached the final at both this event and Wimbledon in 2016 (lost to Andy Murray both times).

 

“The Fever-Tree Championships has always been one of my favorite tournaments,” Dimitrov commented. “I have a special connection with everyone that works there and the crowd, and will always look back with happy memories on winning the event in 2014. I am already looking forward to coming back again in June.”

 

“I like coming to play at The Queen’s Club for the Fever-Tree Championships because I think it’s the best way to prepare for Wimbledon,” Raonic explained. “You have some of the best players in the world competing at this event on pristine grass courts, with a very homely feel, at a tennis club. I think it’s great to be in London at that time of year, as well. I really have enjoyed playing well there in the past, and hopefully I can continue to do so.”

 

“The Fever-Tree Championships is a great event and the grass courts at The Queen’s Club are perfect every year,” Wawrinka said. “I am very much looking forward to returning in June.”

 

Marin Cilic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Nick Kyrgios, Kyle Edmund, Denis Shapovalov, and Felix Auger-Aliassime were already on the entry list.

 

Cilic is an awesome 29-9 lifetime with titles in 2012 and 2018. He also finished runner-up to Murray in 2013 and to Feliciano Lopez in 2016. Kyrgios reached the semifinals last summer, beating Murray before falling to Cilic.

 

Murray has a lifetime commitment to play at Queen’s Club but is obviously expected to miss this year’s tournament following January hip surgery. The 31-year-old Scot considered the idea of delaying surgery in order to play at Queen’s Club and Wimbledon and then retire from tennis, but he ultimately decided to have the operation in hopes of returning at some point in the future.

 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on twitter at @Dimonator.