Carlos Alcaraz will not defend his Queen’s Club Championships title this year.
The Spaniard, a two-time champion at the event, is nursing a troubling wrist injury and will be absent from both the Queen’s Club Championships and Wimbledon.
When Alcaraz won his first title in 2023, he became the first Spaniard to lift the Queen’s Club trophy since Feliciano Lopez in 2019.
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Lopez, the former world number 12, made history in London upon clinching the 2019 title.
Feliciano Lopez’s 2019 Queen’s Club campaign
Heading into the 2019 Queen’s Club Championships, Feliciano Lopez was ranked 113th on the ATP Tour.
The Spaniard, who received a wildcard for the event, began his campaign by defeating Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics in three sets.
Lopez’s run looked as though it may come to an end in the second round, as he was scheduled to play third seed Juan Martin del Potro.
Feliciano Lopez’s run to the 2019 Queen’s Club title
- First round: defeated Marton Fucsovics 6-7, 6-3, 6-4
- Second round: walkover following Juan Martin del Potro’s withdrawal
- Quarter-finals: defeated Milos Raonic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6
- Semi-finals: defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-7, 6-3, 6-4
- Final: defeated Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-7, 7-6
However, Del Potro withdrew shortly before the second-round match after suffering a knee injury.
Lopez took full advantage of his good luck, knocking out sixth seed Milos Raonic and eighth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in consecutive rounds.
In the final, Lopez defeated Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-7, 7-6.
With victory over Simon, Lopez became the first wildcard to win the Queen’s singles title since Pete Sampras in 1999.
Lopez, who also won the Queen’s title in 2017, described the victory as the best moment of his career.
“I don’t know how I did that,” the Spaniard said afterwards, as per BBC Sport.
“I thought the best moment of my career was when I held this trophy in 2017 but it’s not. It’s right now.”
Feliciano Lopez won the doubles title alongside Andy Murray
Lopez and Murray entered the Queen’s Club men’s doubles event through their protected rankings.
In the very first round, the pair stunned top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, 7-6, 6-3.
The pair then knocked out Dan Evans and Neal Skupski in the quarter-finals, and Henri Kontinen and John Peers in the last four.
In the final, Lopez and Murray secured the title by beating Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, 7-6, 5-7, 10-5.
Remarkably, Lopez won the singles and doubles title on the same day.
“It’s been brilliant and I’ve really enjoyed it,” Murray told BBC Sport [reported by Sky Sports] in his on-court interview.
“I felt really relaxed at the beginning of the week and as it’s gone on I was getting more and more nervous as my competitive instincts were kicking in with each match.”
