London (AFP)

At the end of the day: Spaniard Feliciano Lopez won his second ATP grass tournament at the age of 37 after winning the marathon Frenchman Gilles Simon (38) 6-2, 6-7 (7/4), 7- 6 (7/2) in the final, after nearly three hours of play, Sunday in London.

Lopez, 113th in the world and invited to Queen's, became the oldest player to win on London's turf, two years after his last victory, at the same place in 2017.

Exhausted after spending all day on the court on Saturday - two laps in doubles with Andy Murray plus a half in three sets against Felix Auger-Aliassime--, the Spanish southpaw found the resources to beat a barely fresher Simon after winning all his matches in three sets.

In total, the two players each spent more than 13 hours on the court this week.

"I do not know how I did it, Simon became better as the game progressed and I could not find the flaw, I'm glad the tie-break was leaning on my side," Lopez said. result of the match.

"I thought the best time of my career was in 2017, when I won here, but in fact it was not, it's now rather," he added, while his second final, with Murray, was still waiting for him.

Simon, for his part, will be able to see the positive side: he has revived his season after a half-hearted spring and his career could give him confidence in a week of Wimbledon.

- "It was long" -

"I'm tired, it was long every day," said the 34-year-old right-handed man. "It was a great final, it's hard for me after such an effort on the court, but he played the best shots in the end."

The Niçois has also appeared completely short of fuel early in the game: bad services, direct fouls, nothing worked for Simon in the first leg.

The former world N.6 has not come back little by little in the game. If the improvement seen at the end of the first set did not allow him to right immediately the bar (2-6), it allowed him to launch the second act of great way with two consecutive white games.

More authoritarian, more offensive, Simon began to find his rhythm, being very effective in passing shot to counter the Spaniard. In the decisive game, he was good at the right moment, attacking to win the last five points of the tie-break (7/4).

If the third set had the same physiognomy, this time Lopez kept his cool. The Spaniard thus flew over the decisive game (7/2), chaining aces and winning shots to defeat an outmoded Simon and to take the seventh title of his career, the fourth on the green surface.

? 2019 AFP