Three of the world's current top five have announced their participation at the 2016 Aegon Championships (Queen's Club) in June. Two time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka is the latest big name to be added, with Rafael Nadal confirmed and four time winner Andy Murray.
Wawrinka first played at Queen's in the summer of 2014 and made it to the semifinals as the number one seed, losing to eventual champion Grigor Dimitrov. Last year, he was defeated by Kevin Anderson of South Africa in two tiebreaks 7-6(4), 7-6(11).
Tournament Director Stephen Farrow added, "Stan Wawrinka is one of the most spectacular shot-makers in tennis, and the third Grand Slam singles champion to commit to playing at this year's Aegon Championships. We know that our spectators will be excited at the prospect of seeing Stan, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal in action."
The event comes two weeks before Wimbledon, will takes place from 13-19 of June.
Grass record
Stan Wawrinka has never won a trophy on grass, though he did make a final at the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships in Holland in 2013. The Swiss number two defeated Steve Darcis, Paolo Lorenzi, Jeremy Chardy and Guillermo García-López before losing to Nicolas Mahut in straights. Mahut had won the tournament after qualifying.
At Wimbledon, Wawrinka has struggled to put a run together having never made it past the quarterfinals, losing at that stage on two occasions in the past two years. In 2014, he lost to Roger Federer, an eight-time champion in four sets, and last year he played Richard Gasquet in a match that would ultimately end after three and a half hours of hard hitting, when the Frenchman prevailed 11-9 in the fifth set to reach his second semifinal at the All England Club.
The reason he decided to come to Queen's again is because he feels that all players tend to do well at Wimbledon after the tournament and he pointed out that his quarterfinal result in 2014 was due to the fact he went and played well at Queen's.
