SPAIN'S Feliciano López has netted his first-ever Aegon Championship trophy at Queen's after nearly 16 years of trying, having knocked out Croatia's Marin Cilic in a hard-fought three-set match.
The ATP world number 32 said he 'could not believe it' when he scooped up the coveted title, having failed to clinch it on the last 11 occasions – the nearest he got to victory having been in 2014 when a missed match point in the final three years ago saw the trophy land in the hands of his then rival, Grigor Dimitrov.
This time, the 35-year-old saved a match point against Cilic, ending on 4-6, 7-6(7-2), and 7-6(10-8) in a tournament which saw world number one Andy Murray crash out early.
One of Spain's top players on grass, López took two hours and 31 minutes to dispatch the Croatian player in a tough trial which saw both competitors on form, only dropping serve once each, and which went into tie-break.
López had so much hanging on the Queen's title, his holy grail, that he had arranged for his parents to fly to London from Spain to give him luck and Dutch courage.
As for Cilic, he had been on a roll all week and not lost a single game until he came face-to-face with López, and still managed to forge ahead of the Spaniard in the first set before he finally cracked under the pressure.
SPAIN'S last-minute win against England in the 2024 UEFA Euros comes on the 60th anniversary of the country's first-ever title in the much-followed competition – and has broken numerous records, too.
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