London’s other tennis tournament

The Wimbledon tennis championships take place at the end of June and are the two weeks of the year when Britain shows more than a passing interest in the sport. There’s another tennis tournament that takes place in London pre-Wimbledon that gives tennis fans the chance to see the top players warm up for the big one. The Stella Artois Championships have been going since 1979 and are played on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club in the Baron’s Court area of West London, between Hammersmith and Earl’s Court.

The Artois Championships is only a men’s event with singles and doubles matches being played over three sets. They’re on this year from 11-17 June and feature lots of the big names in the men’s game including Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Lleyton Hewittt and Marat Safin and six of the world’s top ten.

Tickets for the Centre Court matches at Queen’s have been sold but they’re now selling Ground Admission tickets that give access to all the outer courts for £14, either online or over the phone. If you want to catch some quality tennis without quite the number of fans around as Wimbledon and maybe spot a potential dark horse for that event, the Stella Artois is probably a good tournament to check out and the Queen’s Club is in a much more central location than the All England Club.