LONDON, April 19, 2017 (Press Release)

Record five-time champion Andy Murray will launch the defence of his Aegon Championships title on Tuesday 20th June at The Queen’s Club, tournament director Stephen Farrow announced Wednesday.

Murray, who returned to action with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Gilles Muller in Monte Carlo today, will play the clay court season before arriving on the grass at The Queen’s Club, where he has won the title in 2009, ’11, ’13, ’15 and ’16.

The tournament is expanding Centre Court capacity by more than 30% for 2017 and has sold more than 9,000 tickets than ever before so far this year. Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th  and Sunday 25th June are almost completely sold out.

Murray will have his work cut out against one of the strongest line-ups ever assembled at the Aegon Championships. The full entry list will be released in the second week of May, but the following players have already confirmed that they will play the event, along with Murray, 19th-25th June.

Rafael Nadal
Stan Wawrinka
Milos Raonic
Grigor Dimitrov
Nick Kyrgios
Juan Martin del Potro

Earlier this year, Murray made a career-commitment to play in the Aegon Championships, and the BBC announced that they will cover the tournament until at least 2024.

Last year, the Aegon Championships was voted ATP-500 Tournament of the Year by the players – the fourth successive year that the event has received a tournament of the year award.