The Best Boodles Ever? 2013 Tournament Review...
What a glorious and historic summer of tennis it has been with Andy Murray winning his first Wimbledon title and ending Britain's 77-year wait for a men's champion with a hard-fought victory over world number one Novak Djokovic.
3 of the 4 Wimbledon semi-finalists participated in this year's Boodles, and the winner, and fourth semi-finalist were both Boodles veterans. So why not continue reading to see which of this year’s Boodles players made it into the semi-finals at Wimbledon……
The Boodles 2013 line-up included Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro, Tomas Berdych, Richard Gasquest, Grigor Dimitrov, Jerzy Janowicz and Marin Cillic. The tournament began in style with an entertaining encounter between Janko Tipsarevic and rising star Grigor Dimitrov, with Tipsarevic edging out the young star from Bulgaria. The match marked Dimitrov’s second outing on Stoke Park’s magnificent grass courts and he looked right at home. “The court was very, very good I enjoyed it a lot. I haven’t had that much fun in a while and it was a great atmosphere,” he said.
This was followed by a sun-drenched day that saw former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych overcome entertaining Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov, before big-serving American Sam Querrey took out French showman Richard Gasquet. The US star John Isner also took to the court for the day’s final match, and was a welcome return to Stoke Park after making his debut at The Boodles 2012, stating, “It brings back good memories coming back to London. I feel like I’m getting better and better at playing on this surface.”
The excitement continued with World No.1 Novak Djokovic who was again the star of the show when he took on Dimitrov in one of the most entertaining matches of the week. Djokovic was in a playful mood, joking between points demanding that Dimitrov take his shirt off for the excitable female fans in the crowd.
“Everything is going according to plan and hopefully I can get in the best possible shape for the start of Wimbledon,” said Djokovic, who was playing his first match of the grass-court season after opting to rest last week. “I know what I need to do in order to adjust from the slowest to the fastest service in a very short period of time.”
Grand Slam champion Juan Martin Del Potro then put the finishing touches on his Wimbledon preparations with a competitive match against Richard Gasquet. Del Potro, who won the 2009 US Open, was edged out by Gasquet but afterwards said that he was glad that he made the visit to Stoke Park. “I think these kind of matches before Wimbledon are nice for the preparation,”. “Richard is a good player and a good guy. The match was really fun and now I’m really excited to start for Wimbledon.” This was followed by the return of the breakout star of this year’s event, Grigor Dimitrov, who beat Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz. The charismatic 22-year-old has been an instant hit with fans at Stoke Park and it seems that the feeling is mutual. “It’s awesome here,” said Dimitrov, who stripped to the waist for the second match running, much to the delight of female fans on the centre court.
A memorable Boodles 2013 served up the tournament’s trademark mix of lighthearted capers on court and spectacular grass-court tennis. Tickets are now on sale for The Boodles 2014 and we look forward to seeing you, for what is sure to be another memorable tournament.