LONDON, June 23, 2019 (Press Release)
Feliciano Lopez confounded everyone when he finally won the title at The Queen’s Club two years ago at the age of 35. This year, he has one-upped himself, twice.
Yesterday, he outlasted 18-year-old superstar-in-waiting Felix Auger-Aliassime to reach the singles final. Then, after a 6-minute break, he resumed his doubles quarterfinal with Andy Murray against Dan Evans and Ken Skupski. After winning that, he sat on his courtside chair and waited for their semi-final. He won that, too, and now meets Gilles Simon in the singles final today, followed by Joe Salisbury and Rajeev Ram in the doubles championship match.
“If someone had told me this a week ago, I would say you’re crazy,” Lopez said. “To be here again in the finals in both singles and doubles, it’s tough to believe, no?”
“We all play tennis for moments like this, and I feel very fortunate to be sharing the court with Andy this week.”@feliciano_lopez is enjoying his time as an honorary Brit at #QueensTennis, on both the singles AND doubles court! pic.twitter.com/g0OcGhNeNV
— Fever-Tree Championships (@QueensTennis) 22. Juni 2019
How’s Murray feeling?
“No pain in my hip at all, zero,” said Murray. “My brother has always loved this event, and I’ve always loved playing here, so it’s really nice to be in the doubles final.”
Gilles Simon continued his marathon week, taking his on-court time to more than 10 hours with a three-set win over Daniil Medvedev.
“It was a really, really good performance today with the fatigue from the match yesterday,” Simon said, referring to the longest match in the history of the tournament the day before, against Nicolas Mahut. “I found a good rhythm. I was hitting the ball well. I had good ball control on both sides.”
Elsewhere, Team USA won the inaugural Paul Hutchins Trophy in thrilling style 6-5 after French Open semi-finalist Martin Damm beat Arthur Fery 7-5 4-6 7-6.
British tennis saw more success, however, in the Fever-Tree Wheelchair Championships.
Gordon Reid opened the day’s play by upsetting the defending champion Stefan Olsson 4-6 6-3 7-5. His doubles partner Alfie Hewett needed less than an hour to beat Dermot Bailey.
Reid and Hewett will meet in today’s singles final on Court 1. They will then compete together in the doubles final.
Play on Centre Court will begin at 1:30 pm with the singles final. With a win on Sunday, Feliciano Lopez will be the oldest singles champion at the Queen’s Club, while Simon will attempt to become the first French player to win it.
