Qualifier is Queen's champion! Maria claims historic title

German qualifier Tatjana Maria beat America’s Amanda Anisimova to become the first women’s champion at The Queen’s Club in 52 years with a straight-sets final victory.

Maria completed a 6-3 6-4 win at the HSBC Championships against the eighth seed in an hour and 24 minutes to claim the biggest title of her career in front of her two daughters, her husband, and coach Charles-Edouard Maria.

The 37-year-old defeated Australian Open champion Madison Keys, 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina and Karolina Muchova on her way to victory.

The former Wimbledon semi-finalist is now the oldest ever WTA 500 champion since 2020, when Serena Williams – who also returned to tennis after having children – won in Auckland, aged 38.

Anisimova struggled against Maria’s slice and only managed to win 55 per cent of points on serve in the opening set and was then on the backfoot for most of the match.

Anisimova, the world No. 87, continued to make errors in the second set and Maria capitalised on this, edging ahead to a double break lead.

Maria then served at 5-4 for the biggest title of her career, and Anisimova sent her forehand wide to hand Maria the historic victory.

The German qualifier put her hands to her face in shock before heading over to her family to celebrate, whilst Anisimova looked astonished in her chair.

She replaces Olga Morozova, who once coached a young Murray, as the most recent female winner at Queen’s, and marked the venue’s new chapter by scribbling “queen of Queen’s” on the camera.

Maria entered this WTA 500 tournament at 86th in the rankings, but the triumph will catapult her to No 43 when they update on Monday – when Emma Raducanu will also officially take over from Katie Boulter as British No 1.

The 2022 German Wimbledon semi-finalist won her first WTA title on grass at Mallorca in 2018, following it with back-to-back clay-court trophies at Bogota.

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