From the dirt of Roland Garros to the grass of Wimbledon... But first, Eastbourne!
The small seaside town hosts the most popular men's and women's run-up to the big dance in SW19
It’s almost a bit of too much grass, like a deliberate ploy to induce hay fever — or a delirium for Wimbledon. Beginning in Nottingham a day after the French Open ends to the time it all ends, the "grass court season” lasts five weeks, traversing Nottingham to Birmingham to, lastly, Eastbourne before ending at the All-England Lawn Tennis Club, aka Wimbledon. Although the tourney has changed names — and sponsors — no fewer than five, six, seven times (Rothesay International, the UK's largest pensions insurance specialist, took over from Viking the cruise line, which took over from AGEON, etc., etc.) one thing is certain: the Brits want one of their own to kiss the “Rothesay trophy.” Katie Boulter recently managed to win in Nottingham for the second year in a row, and for the first time since anyone can remember two British men claimed the singles and the doubles titles.
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But other grass events didn’t turn up to the English fan’s liking. American Tommy Paul took the 2024 Queens Cup title the past weekend, and in Birmingham — the women’s equivalent — another Russian-born Kazakhstani player, Yulia Putintseva, edged out Australian Ajla Tomljanović — the closest thing to a Brit to ever win the Maud Watson trophy at Edgbaston Priory Club. And in the Open Era, only one Brit has won at Eastbourne: Virginia Wade in 1975. In 2023, American Madison Keys and Argentinian Francisco Cerúndolo won Eastbourne. This week, it’s anyone’s guess, but the draw is loaded with Union Jacks.
The week before Wimbledon, if you’re a pro and you’re not having to play Wimbledon qualies, you’re down South on the English Channel in Eastbourne. There are several reasons for this. Surrounded by trees and gardens, Devonshire Park is a “tennis ball throw away” from the town centre and seafront. Secondly, the club boasts that it has “best grass courts in the world,” and although many, many grass court clubs in England make that claim, Eastbourne’s don’t get as brown and patchy as All-England’s. Lastly, Eastbourne has several five-star luxury and boutique hotels, as well as quite a few fine dining options, including the old Grand Hotel Eastbourne, the Langham and the Belle Tout, a lighthouse converted to a small B + B — a nice working vacation for tennis couples like Boulter and Alex De Minaur. A £58 million upgrade to Devonshire Park from the Eastbourne Borough Council featuring a new show court, pristine practice courts, upgraded changing rooms and player facilities also makes Devonshire just a good place to hangout.
Devonshire Park also has a rich and, actually, very fun history. First created as part of the 7th Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish’s, expansion of the Eastbourne seafront, which introduced theatres and various sporting and entertainment facilities in the 1870s, the tennis club eventually shook off attempts to make it a cricket ground and in 1879, marked out its first tennis courts. Four years after the All-England Lawn Tennis Club regularised the rules of lawn tennis and staged the first Wimbledon in 1877, Devonshire put on its inaugural South of England Championships. After 136 years, sponsors took over the tourney and the naming game began with John Player cigarettes as Eastbourne’s first official sponsor followed by a host of others, including BMW, Volkswagen and… Pilkington Glass.
Fred Perry, the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title until Andy Murray won the 2012 U.S. Open and then Wimbledon in 2013, was a table tennis player until he walked into Devonshire Park in 1929. On holiday at Eastbourne after winning the world (table) tennis championships at age twenty, Perry wandered into Devonshire Park for the South of England Championships and was dazzled by the sight of the players in white against the rich green of the grass — also by the Daimlers, MGs and Hispano-Suizas parked outside. “I asked my father if all those big cars belonged to the players and he said they did,” Perry said years later. Perry may have also been swayed partly by his father's observation that table tennis was a thoroughly unhealthy activity played at night in smoke-filled lounges. But the luxury of Eastbourne won him over, “That’s for me,” Perry allegedly said.
This year will be the last one to enjoy the run-up to Wimbledon as the Brits have known it for the past few years — everything changes in 2025, except Eastbourne The next grass court season will launch, instead of in Nottingham as it has since 2015, with a combined challenger level event at the Edgbaston Priory Club — a drop-down to the minor leagues of tennis for the club in Birmingham. (Britain’s second largest city needs Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby of Peaky Blinders to start negotiating with the LTA.) Meanwhile, The Queen’s Club in London take over Birmingham’s high-profile WTA 500 tournament (for the first time in over 50 years), then turns around and put on its hugely popular men’s ATP 500 tournament the following week. Nottingham, which usually comes first, will be next to last. Eastbourne, with all the efforts it had made in bringing people back to the English seaside, instead of Spain or Portugal, is going nowhere.
