The Nottingham Open was originally known as the Nottingham Championships or Nottingham Lawn Tennis Tournament (1887-1967), is a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

tournament for men and women held in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...

, United Kingdom, played on outdoor grass courts at the

Nottingham Tennis Centre Nottingham Tennis Centre is a tennis venue in Nottingham, England. The centre holds a range of tournaments throughout the year, such as the Nottingham Open, which is held before The Championships, Wimbledon. The Jack Britton Trophy tourname ...

. After being discontinued in 2008, it was downgraded in 2011 to

ATP Challenger Tour The ATP Challenger Tour, known until the end of 2008 as the ATP Challenger Series, is a series of international men's professional tennis tournaments. The Challenger Tour events are the second-highest tier of tennis competition, behind the ATP T ...

and

ITF Women's Circuit The ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, previously known as the ITF Women's Circuit, is a series of professional tennis tournaments run by the International Tennis Federation for female professional tennis players. History It serves as a developmental ...

. briefly re-established as an

ATP World Tour 250 The ATP 250 tournaments (previously known as the ''ATP World Tour 250'' tournaments, ''ATP International Series'', and ''ATP World Series'') are the lowest tier of annual men's tennis tournaments on the main ATP Tour, after the four Grand Slam to ...

event on the men's tour in 2015 and 2016, before returning to a Challenger event in 2017, and since 2015 it has been an international event on the

women's tour A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

. The tournament is held in June as a "warm-up" for Wimbledon.

History

The event was founded in 1887 as the Nottingham Championships until 1967. At the start of the open era in 1968 it became part of the independent

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there ...

annual tour until 1973. In 1971 it was previously known as John Player Nottingham Tennis Tournament, John Player Open, Samsung Open, Aegon Open Nottingham and Nature Valley Open among other names. Originally a replacement of the

Manchester Open The Manchester Open previously known as the Northern Lawn Tennis Championships, the Northern Championships, the Northern Tennis Tournament and the Manchester Trophy was a grass court tennis tournament on the ATP Tour held at the Northern Lawn ...

and was part of the

Grand Prix tennis circuit The Grand Prix tennis circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players that existed from 1970 to 1989. The Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis (WCT) were the two predecessors to the current tour for male players, the ATP Tour, with t ...

from (1973–77), it was also a Grand Prix Super Series prestigious event (1974–75), which was discontinued after the 2008 edition, and the

International Women's Open The Eastbourne International is a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour and the ATP Tour held at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club, Eastbourne, United Kingdom. Held since 1974, it is classified as a WTA 500 series on the WTA Tour and an ATP Tour 2 ...

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. Eastbourne is immediately east of Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in Great Britain and part of the la ...

became a combined event for both male and female players.

Nottingham City Council Nottingham City Council is the local authority for the unitary authority of Nottingham in Nottinghamshire, England. It consists of 55 councillors, representing a total of 20 wards, elected every four years. The council is led by David Mellen, of ...

bosses announced their "extreme disappointment" at having Nottingham Open removed from the ATP Tour. The event had, according to the council, been partly responsible for stimulating interest in tennis in Nottingham.

Roger Draper Roger Draper is the former chief executive of Sport England from 2003 to 2006, and the Lawn Tennis Association from 2006 to 2013. He was also Chief Executive of professional Rugby League club, Warrington Wolves from 2015 to 2017 and Executive Di ...

, the head of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) responded by saying that the changes would introduce tennis to a "new audience". It was announced later in 2008 that Nottingham would host a new tennis event, the Aegon Nottingham Trophy, in lieu of the

Surbiton Trophy The Surbiton Trophy is a tennis tournament for male and female professional players played on grass courts. The event was held annually in Surbiton, England, from 1997 through 2008 as part of the ATP Challenger Series and ITF Women's Circuit. In ...

, which was cancelled, in 2009. The new event was an ATP Challenger Series event, one level lower than the main ATP Tour. The

, which had hosted the Open, had undergone refurbishments costing £735,000 in 2008, and councillor Dave Trimble called it "great news" to have a new tennis event in the city. In 2015 Birmingham based company Eventmasters LTD were appointed by the LTA to promote official hospitality at both the WTA ATP Open events transforming part of the indoor court area into the Sherwood Suite.

History

Past finals

Men's singles

Men's doubles

Women's singles

Women's doubles

Notes

References

External links