Record five-time champion Andy Murray will launch the defence of his Aegon Championships title on Tuesday June 20 at The Queen’s Club, Tournament Director Stephen Farrow has announced.
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. In 2013 and 2016, he also went on to win the Wimbledon title.
The World No.1 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 they will play the event, along with Murray, from June 19-25:
· Rafael Nadal
· Stan Wawrinka
· Milos Raonic
· Grigor Dimitrov
· Nick Kyrgios
· Juan Martin del Potro
· Jamie Murray.
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.
The Aegon Championships is expanding its Centre Court capacity by more than 30% for 2017 and has sold more than 9,000 tickets than ever before. Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th June are almost completely sold out, but there is still limited availability on the other days of the tournament.
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.