Not since 1938, when Henry 'Bunny' Rogers claimed the title at the Queens Club in London, has there been a British winner of the pre-Wimbledon tournament. Records, though, are there to be broken, and today Andy Murray achieved two more firsts in his career, to add to the long list he has already achieved this season.
His 7-5 6-4 demolition of America's James Blake, in just over an hour, was the culmination of a perfect week of tennis for the World number three, as he brushed aside every opponent placed in front of him with consummate ease.
The win gave Murray his first ever grass court title of his career and greatly enhanced his already major chances of winning Wimbledon, and possibly claiming his first grand slam title.
This year has already been a year of firsts for Murray. He reached the quarter's and semi finals of a clay court event for the first time, had his best performance at Roland Garros, reaching the quarter finals there for the first time, and also became the first British man in the open era to reach the world number three ranking, where he now sits behind the mercurial Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who Murray is inching ever closer to as the weeks go by.
The ease in which Murray claimed the title at Queens, his fourth title of the year, and his 12th of his career (one more than Tim Henman achieved in his entire career) is only going to get the British press into more of a furore over his chances at Wimbledon, but with Nadal seemingly not at 100%, many would consider Murray as second favourite for Wimbledon at the very least, but when you also take into consideration that Murray has beaten Federer on their previous four meetings, maybe Murray could even be considered overall favourite for the title.
Neither Nadal or Federer, though, will be getting any practice on the grass before Wimbledon. Nadal will be giving his knee the longest possible amount of time to recuperate before defending his crown, and Federer withdrew from his usual warm up event in Halle due to exhaustion.
Going down the list, Novak Djokovic, the world number four, fell short in the final at Halle today, losing out to Tommy Haas, who always seems to do well around this time of year.
Some other players on the tour that may be considered a threat are two time finalist Andy Roddick and possibly Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, but unlike any other surface, there are only a select few that can be considered serious contenders on grass, not that last years Wimbledon was a good indicator of that, with Jonas Bjorkman and Rainer Schuettler reaching the semi finals.
When I talked about Nadal's exit from Roland Garros a fortnight ago, and hyped up Federer's chances of finally completing the career grand slam, I spoke of a particular omen that Federer fans may have liked to have held on to. Federer was competing in his 11th Roland Garros this year, which also happened to be the same amount that Andre Agassi had been in before he also completed the career grand slam in Paris, the last person to do so prior to Federer.
If your looking for an omen for Murray this time around, and for Wimbledon coming up, then you may want to hold onto the fact that when Austin won Queen's way back in 1938, he followed it up with a Wimbledon final. Despite Murray's determined nature I think not even he would be unhappy at reaching a Wimbledon final, question is, if he gets there, can he win it?
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