Andy Murray and the rest of the British team seem to have had their request for their forthcoming Davis Cup quarter-final against the formidable French fulfilled. With the Aegon Championships and then Wimbledon being held just weeks before, the sensible step of holding the prestigious tie on a grass court has been observed. The Queen's Club in London has been selected as the venue, as GB look forward to their first tie in the last-eight of the historic competition on home soil since the distant days of 1986.
These are heady days indeed for British men's Tennis, with the patriotic Murray leading from the front on the global stage as the current world number three player.
However, national fervour and support can only get you so far, so the decision has wisely been taken to pick a surface that should help their players. Both of the likely picks for the singles matches, Murray and James Ward are comfortable on the surface and have tasted success at the Queen's Club before. The older Murray brother, Jamie is another likely to benefit from playing on grass if selected for the doubles, having been a mixed-doubles champion at Wimbledon in 2007. Andy is of course a former Wimbledon singles champion and three-time champion at the Queen's Club event.
The quarter-final tie is to be played from 17th - 19th July, which should give the groundsman adequate time to prepare the court in readiness for the singles and doubles rubbers.
This year's Aegon Championships at Queen's will run from 15th - 21st June. Wimbledon was never a viable alternative, given the close proximity of the Grand Slam event to the Davis Cup match, with the final day of action scheduled to be on 12th July.
Andy Murray has backed the decision, stating that Queen's will be "a perfect venue" when he was asked for this thoughts afterwards.
Ward has been getting in some match practice ahead of the French Open on clay in the Barcelona Open. Sadly for British tennis fans he was knocked out in the first round proper by the higher-ranked Marsel Ilhan of Turkey. He did however come through two qualifying matches prior to that defeat, the 84th world ranked player ultimately winning 7-6 3-6 6-1.