The Aegon Championships, the ATP World Tour 500 Tournament of the Year, has celebrated its four-time champions around the grounds of The Queen’s Club and its Victorian pavilion this week.

Four-time former titlists Roy Emerson, John McEnroe, Boris Becker and Lleyton Hewitt were special guests on Friday at The Queen’s Club, which has hosted a pre-Wimbledon grass-court tournament since 1890.

Stephen Farrow, tournament director of the Aegon Championships; Jim Moore, the tournament referee for the past 39 years, and Graham Kimpton, head groundsman at The Queen’s Club, presented Emerson, McEnroe and Becker quarter-size replica trophies. Hewitt had received his miniature trophy earlier in the year.

World No. 2 Andy Murray is going for a record fifth title at the tournament this week.

FOUR-TIME KINGS OF QUEEN’S

Becker now coaches World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and John McEnroe has recently teamed up with Milos Raonic for the grass-court swing. Hewitt retired from professional tennis in January this year.

Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram are into the final of the Gerry Weber Open after defeating top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan 6-4, 7-6(2) on Friday. The Bryans had not dropped a set coming into the semi-final clash, but were broken twice and succumbed in 74 minutes.

Klaasen/Ram served well in the second set, firing five aces and only dropping two first serve points. The third seeds will be aiming for their first team title this year against either Henri Kontinen/John Peers or Lukasz Kubot/Alexander Peya.

Defending Champions Advance At The Queen’s Club

Top seeds and defending champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut beat Juan Martin del Potro and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-4 in one hour for a place in the Aegon Championships semi-finals.

They will next face wild cards Jonathan Erlich and Colin Fleming, who saved five match points to beat third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 2-6, 7-6(7), 10-8 in one hour and 35 minutes. Rojer and Tecau could not convert three match points on serve at 5-4 in the second set, then at 6/5 and 7/6 in the tie-break.

Marin Cilic, who is through to the singles semi-finals, partnered fellow Croat Marin Draganja to a 7-6(3), 6-3 victory over John Isner and Marcin Matkowski in 76 minutes.

Top seed and eight-time champion Roger Federer is one match away from reaching the Gerry Weber Open final for the 11th time after he defeated fifth seed David Goffin 6-1, 7-6(10) in 81 minutes on Friday. The Swiss broke back with Goffin serving for the second set and secured the win on his fifth match point.

The Swiss will compete against Alexander Zverev in Saturday’s semi-finals. Federer won their lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting 6-3, 7-5 at last month’s Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

Federer took a 3-0 lead against Goffin in the 21-minute first set, which included five breaks of serve. The pair exchanged service breaks midway through the second set, prior to Goffin breaking Federer to 15 for a 5-4 lead. Goffin failed to convert one set point when serving at 5-4, 40/30 and four more in the second-set tie-break. It was Federer’s 29th straight win against Belgian opponents.

Zverev, part of the ATP’s ‘Next Generation’, recorded his 26th match win in a career-best year to knock out 2007 runner-up Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(9), 6-3 in just over 90 minutes. Zverev saved five set points at 3/6, 6/7 and 8/9 in the first set tie-break.

Third seed Dominic Thiem advanced to the semi-finals without hitting a ball when 2011 titlist Philipp Kohlschreiber, the eighth seed, withdrew prior to the match due to a left hip strain. The pair had contested the BMW Open by FWU AG and Mercedes Cup finals this year.