British Hard Court Championships

As an amateur tournament, the inaugural edition was held in 1924 in Torquay, moving to the West Hants Tennis Club in Bournemouth, England in 1927. The tournament remained there until 1983, although the 1977 and 1979 editions were cancelled due to lack of sponsorship.^[1]

At that time, the tournament was played outdoors on red shale,^[a] which is similar to European clay but with a grittier, looser surface, thus leading to faster play.^[2][3] When the tournament became a fixture of the Open Era in 1968 (see below), many professional competitors from overseas, unused to the playing conditions, complained that the shale courts were wet and slippery.^[4] By the mid-1970s, however, the event had become a destination for several top European and South American clay courters: winners of the men's singles championship during those years include Ilie Năstase, Adriano Panatta, Manuel Orantes, Victor Pecci and José Higueras. This did not prevent it from being cancelled indefinitely in 1984, which the organisers explained was due to the lack of a sponsor and the withdrawal of television coverage.^[5]

In 1995, the event was revived at Bournemouth as a women's WTA tournament but was only played there that one time; the final edition the following year was held in Cardiff, Wales.^[6] A men's ATP World Series tournament was then staged at the West Hants Club on American green clay from 1996 to 1999, before being relocated to indoor hard courts in Brighton for the 2000 edition (see Brighton International).^[7]

Bournemouth was once one of the world's major tournaments, second only to Wimbledon in England and on the same level as Monte Carlo, Rome and Hamburg.^[2] In the pre-war era, it was regarded as the most important event outside the four Grand Slams. Fred Perry is the record holder with five consecutive titles, from 1932 through to 1936.^[6]

The Championships hold the distinction of being the first tennis tournament to be held in the Open Era, taking place in April 1968.^[8] It started on 22 April at 1:43 p.m. when John Clifton served and won the first point.^[9][10] Ken Rosewall won the men's singles title, taking home $2,400, while runner-up Rod Laver received $1,200. Virginia Wade won the women's singles title, defeating Winnie Shaw in the final, but did not take home the winner's prize of $720 as she was still an amateur at the time of the tournament. She thus became the first amateur to win a title in the Open Era.^[11][12] Christine Janes and her sister Nell Truman became the first winners of an open tennis event by winning the women's doubles title.^[2]

The tournament was considered a success and attracted almost 30,000 visitors.^[10][13] The young British player Mark Cox went down in tennis history, when at the second round of the championships he became the first amateur player to beat a professional, after defeating the American Pancho Gonzales in five sets in two and a quarter hours.^[9][12][14]

• British Covered Court Championships
• Category:National and multi-national tennis tournaments