Feliciano Lopez and Marin Cilic fought for the title.
A three-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist, Feliciano Lopez—with his swinging left-handed serve, biting slice backhand and aggressive mind-set—was long considered one of the premier grass-court specialists on the ATP Tour.
His campaign on the surface in 2017 got off to an impressive start. The Spaniard reached the final in Stuttgart, then followed that up with another run to the title round at the Queen’s Club event in London. Unseeded, he defeated three players who had been ranked in the Top 10 at some point, including Grigor Dimitrov, whom he lost to in the 2014 championship bout despite holding a match point.
His final-round opponent would be the fourth seed, Marin Cilic. The 2012 champion eased through his first three matches without the loss of a set before a semifinal battle against Gilles Muller that went the distance.
In their most recent encounter, held only a few weeks prior to this match at the French Open, Cilic easily handled Lopez, defeating him in straight sets in the third round. In fact, Cilic was riding a four-match winning streak against the Spaniard, which included hard-fought victories at Queen’s Club in 2013 and 2016. In the first set of this final, the two were on even ground through the first nine games before Cilic broke through in the 10th one to take the opener, 6-4.
In the second set, Lopez battled throughout his service games but didn’t yield and eventually the two played a tiebreaker. His struggles seemed to fall by the wayside as he hit three aces, and stepped up his own returns. Where it once seemed he was getting overpowered, the veteran turned his game up several notches to force a deciding set.
What occurred next was a battle between the two, with neither able to break through on the other’s serve, eventually leading to a decisive tiebreaker. With a second Queen’s title within his reach, Cilic held match point at 6-5, but Lopez fended it off with a forehand volley. At 8-8, Lopez hit his 19th ace to reach match point, clinching it on the next opportunity off a Cilic forehand error to take the biggest title of his career.
1
Queen’s Club to this point was Cilic’s most successful tournament on grass. It was the only venue he reached a final at: this loss dropped his record to 1-2 in championship matches there.
2
For the second time in his career, Lopez followed up a loss in a grass-court final with a title the next week. The other time that happened was in 2014, when he triumphed in Eastbourne after dropping the Queen’s Club championship match.
3
Of his six career singles titles, this was the third Lopez won in a 7-5 or 7-6 deciding set in the final against two losses by those scores.
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