After a fortnight of slips and slides on the Parisian clay, the road to Wimbledon begins at Queen’s Club on June 9-15 as the iconic venue hosts the 2014 AEGON Championships, live on BBC Sport and BT Sport.
The tournament, one of the oldest and most prestigious on the men’s tennis calendar, marks the beginning of the grass-court season in tennis and is viewed as the premier traditional men’s warm-up event for The Championships at SW19.
British number one and reigning Wimbledon champion Andy Murray will return to defend the title he won for a third time last year, having lifted the trophy once again 12 months by defeating Croatia’s Marin Cilic in three sets in the final.
Murray made history in 2013 as he became the seventh player to win the Queen’s-Wimbledon double, ending the much heralded 77-year wait for a British men’s champion at SW19.
Since the tournament’s inception, the six other Queen’s Club-Wimbledon double winners include John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal, with Murray joining the list last year.
Alongside Murray, this year’s line-up at Queen’s Club includes world number five Tomas Berdych, 2011 runner-up Jo Wilfried Tsonga, world number 12 Grigor Dimitrov and former Queen’s champion Leyton Hewitt, while Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka was given a late wildcard into the event.
Murrayhas a bye in the first round though the 27-year-old third seed could face either Bernard Tomic or Radek Stepanek in a potentially tricky third round match.
Queen’s Club marks the start of two weeks of intense grass court warm-up tournaments on both the ATP and WTA Tours across the UK and Europe as players aim to make the best preparations ahead of Wimbledon, starting on June 23.
In addition, British Tennis will be staging a special Rally for Bally event comprising of an all-star line-up of mixed doubles matches on Sunday, June 15, in memory of former British number one Elena Baltacha, who recently passed away after losing her courageous fight against liver cancer.
The matches will raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity and the Elena Baltacha Academy of Tennis and be played at both the AEGON Championships at Queen’s Club and the AEGON Classic at Edgbaston.
Last year’s Wimbledon singles champions Andy Murray and Marion Bartoli, plus Ross Hutchins, himself a cancer survivor and now tournament director of the AEGON Championships, will play on opposing mixed doubles teams at Queen’s Club, while 18-time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova, Anne Keothavong, Tim Henman and Jamie Murray will all play in Birmingham.
Rally for Bally follows on from last year’s hugely successful Rally Against Cancer held at Queen’s Club last year.
The event was organised by Great Britain Davis Cup doubles player Hutchins, who has recovered himself from being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December 2012.
Another entertaining week of grass court awaits at Queen’s Club as tennis fans get the first clues of players form ahead of Wimbledon 2014 and you can follow the action on BBC TV and, for the first time, on BT Sport.
Follow the 2014 AEGON Championships live on BBC Sport & BT Sport:
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OFFICIAL WEBSITE DRAWS SCHEDULE LIVE SCORES
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DAY 7: SUNDAY 15th JUNE – Final
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Centre Court 12:30 BST start| [4] (BUL) G DIMITROV. | v | F LOPEZ (ESP) [10] |
CLICK HERE for full ORDER OF PLAY
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Watch online via BBC Sport website
LIVE: 2.00pm-5.30pm BBC Two
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Watch online via BT Sport
LIVE: 2.00pm-4.00pm ESPN
| RALLY FOR BALLY |
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BBC Sport will broadcast extensive coverage of the 2014 AEGON Championships, the premier Wimbledon warm-up event.
Sue Barker anchors all the action from a studio overlooking Centre Court at the famous Queen’s Club with more than 30 hours of live coverage on BBC network TV, plus further live action via BBC Red Button.
BBC Two’s weekday coverage starts at 1.00pm and concludes at 6.00pm from Monday to Friday, while extended coverage can be found via the BBC Red Button during the week (Mon-Fri) with live coverage starting when play begins at 12.30pm.
In addition, there will be at least a further two hours of live action via the Red Button following the end of BBC Two’s transmission.
The semi-finals will be broadcast on BBC One on Saturday (June 14), switching to BBC Two at 4.00pm due to World Cup football.
Then on Sunday, coverage of final will be shown live and uninterrupted on BBC Two from 2.00pm, which will also feature the start of the Rally for Bally charity matches, with the live action continuing on BBC Red Button at 5.30pm onwards.
Commentary duties throughout the week will be shared between Andrew Castle, Andrew Cotter, John Lloyd and Peter Fleming, while John Inverdale will conduct interviews with the players and reports from around the grounds.
All of the BBC’s network TV coverage will available to watch in high-definition on either BBC One HD or BBC Two HD.
Live streaming, text commentaries and match reports will be provided via the BBC Sport website and app.
BBC Radio 5 Live will carry reports throughout the week as well as live commentary of the semi-finals and final.
BT Sport will screen live coverage of the AEGON Championships at Queen’s Club for the first time in 2014 via its ESPN channel.
As part of a deal with the LTA, BT Sport is covering three of the UK’s showpiece summer grass court tournaments in the run up to Wimbledon 2014, at Queen’s Club and Edgbaston from June 9-15 and Eastbourne from June 16-21.
The network takes over the pay-TV rights to cover the AEGON Championships from British Eurosport, ending the pan-European channel’s decade-long association, however it will instead cover the Gerry Weber Open in Halle during the same week, featuring Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
BT Sport’s daily live coverage of Queen’s Club starts when play begins on ESPN and ESPN HD at 12.30pm from Monday to Friday, with the semi-finals and final also live over the weekend.
In addition, BT Sport will also screen exclusive live coverage of the AEGON Classic at Edgbaston during the week on BT Sport 1.
The channel will also broadcast live coverage of a special all-star line-up of exhibition mixed doubles matches at Queen’s Club and Birmingham on Sunday, June 15, as British Tennis stages Rally for Bally, in memory of former British number one Elena Baltacha, who recently passed away after losing her courageous fight against liver cancer.
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Why is the Centre Court net a doubles net and not a singles one? I noticed this also happened on occasions at the French Open last week.