The Tennis Tourist: Aegon International

AEGON International

Dates: 12-19th June

Prize money: Womens: $600,000, Men’s: €405,000

Draw size: 32 singles, 16 doubles

The lowdown: Eastbourne welcomes the combined Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premier and ATP World Tour 250 event back to the south coast after a successful debut for the men last year. Dimitry Tursunov marked the ATP Tour’s move away from Nottingham with his first grass court title, ending the dream run of Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic in the 2009 final. Caroline Wozniacki starred in the 32-strong women’s draw, defeating Virginie Razzano in straight sets to claim her fifth career triumph.

The venue: Devonshire Park is the town’s oldest park (dating back to 1873 or 1874) and has, as you might expect, an English garden party-type feel. It’s relatively small but charmingly laid-back, and punters are often found lazing around on the grass sapping up the rays while the high-octane tennis goes on around them. The grounds are within five-minutes walk from the beach, so it's easy to nip off down there for an ice cream whenever there’s a lull in the ball-bashing.

The town: Located on the south coast of England in the county of East Sussex, Eastbourne has long been a favourite venue for British tennis fans. Devonshire Park hosted the British Junior National Grass Court Championships for a long spell, and every year it stages Group One of the LTAs County Week (an inter-county doubles competition for the best county players in Britain).

Eastbourne has the slightly unfair tag of being home to pensioners - and only pensioners - and yep, it’s got its fair share of docile octogenarians, but look beyond that, the numerous shops laden with seaside tat and Eastbourne's stony beach, and it’s got charm too. Better yet, it’s spotlessly clean.

The players: Women
The biggest of the Wimbledon warm-up events for the women, Eastbourne usually boasts a high-quality field. Past champions include Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna, Monica Seles, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Lindsay Davenport, Svetlana Kuznetsova and of course last year’s champ and world No.3 Caroline Wozniacki.

This year sees a sterling line-up, with thirteen of the world’s top 20 players signed up to compete. Wozniacki will attempt to defend her 2009 crown, while 2005 champion Kim Clijsters will hope to shake off the foot injury that ruled her out of the French Open to claim her second Eastbourne triumph.

Elena Dementieva, Sam Stosur, Agnieszka Radwanska, Victoria Azarenka, Yanina Wickmayer and Na Li are other notable entrants hoping for silverware and a confidence boost before Wimbledon.

The players: Men

John Isner and Sam Querrey headline the men’s event, each hoping to become the first American to win the tournament since Pete Sampras took victory in Nottingham in 1990. James Blake - defeated by Andy Murray in the final of the Aegon Championship at Queens last year – is also set to feature, as are Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Nicolas Almagro.

Tickets: Tickets are on sale NOW. Click here to get yours or call the AEGON International box office on: 0871 230 7131