Tennis returns to grass roots

Henman gets to grips with the grass at Queen's Club

By Andrew Warshaw at Queen's Club.

The orderly queue for seats snaked quietly around local streets, fruit juice sellers handed out free samples and touts did their best to offload tickets at hugely inflated prices.

It may only last a matter of four weeks but there was no mistaking it - the grass-court tennis season was back with a bang on Monday.

And would you believe it, the sun blazed through the clouds and there wasn't a hint of rain to spoil the fun.

Just 24 hours after baseline gurus Gustavo Kuerten and Alex Corretja dusted off their rackets after meeting in the final of the French Open, Europe's long clay-court season was suddenly forgotten.

Sampras and Henman at Queen's Club

And all attention switched to an elegant corner of west London for the first and biggest of the traditional pre-Wimbledon warm-up events.

Two hours before the start of play at Queen's Club - where the likes of Pete Sampras, Marat Safin and Tim Henman are beginning their Wimbledon preparation this week - the demand for tickets was as intense as ever.

For English fans, unlike those in the rest of Europe brought up on a weekly diet of chess-like baseline duels, this is what tennis is all about - big serves, crisp volleys and the smell of freshly manicured lawns.

Hardly a rally to remember, perhaps, but a year's excitement packed into four crazy weeks.

It matters not that most of the Queen's Club seeds are not in action until Tuesday or that there are few household names, apart from Greg Rusedski, to cheer on.

Exciteable schoolgirls

Neither are fans dissuaded by the fact that both finalists at Roland Garros on Sunday regard this tournament - and all grass-court tennis for that matter - a waste of time and have chosen to stay away.

Many of those who poured into the grounds for their annual tennis fix probably could not have named either of them anyway.

For these particular fans, everyone from blazered gentry to excitable schoolgirls, just being at Queen's Club is all that matters.

This, after all, is the start of an annual love affair that will last until the final point at Wimbledon, and then be closed away in a locked draw until the same time next year.