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

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament for men and women held in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

, United Kingdom, played on outdoor

grass court A grass court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. While grass courts are more tra ...

s 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'' is a grammatical art ...

. 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. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

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 developmenta ...

, 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 (t ...

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 WTA International event on the women's tour. The tournament is held in June as a "warm-up" for

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

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. there are 211 nat ...

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 Association of Tennis Professionals, ...

and was part of the

Grand Prix tennis circuit The ITF Grand Prix Circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players founded in 1970 as the ILTF Grand Prix Tennis Circuit it was administered by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and ran annually until 1989 when it and the rival ...

from (1973–77), it was also a

Grand Prix Super Series The Grand Prix Super Series of men's tennis tournaments was part of the Grand Prix tennis circuit, Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis tours between 1978 and 1989, sometimes also referred to as the Super Grand Prix. They were held annually ...

prestigious event (1974–75), which was discontinued after the 2008 edition, and the International Women's Open at

Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...

became a combined event for both male and female players.

Nottingham City Council Nottingham City Council is the local authority for the city of Nottingham, in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England. Nottingham has had a council from medieval times, which has been reformed on numerous ...

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 D ...

, the head of the

Lawn Tennis Association The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) is the national governing body of tennis in Great Britain, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man founded in 1888. The LTA promotes all levels of lawn tennis. The organization believes tennis can provide ...

(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, which was cancelled, in 2009. The new event was an

ATP Challenger Series 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. It was founded in 1976 as a replacement for the ILTF Satellite Circuit (founded in 1971) as ...

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

Women's singles

Men's doubles

Women's doubles

Notes

References

External links