European Open (real tennis)

The European Open was a real tennis tournament held annually at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, England. It was a ranking point tournament for the purposes of qualifying for the Real Tennis World Championship.^[1]

The event was first established in 1992 as a doubles tournament at the Queen's Club in London. In 1995 it was converted as an invitational singles tournament in Bordeaux, with the first edition won by Lauchlan Deuchar. It continued to be hosted on an irregular basis at Fontainebleau and Paris in 1996 and 1998 before moving to the United Kingdom in 2003 at Prested Hall. In 2005, the event became an Open and moved to its permanent venue at the Lord's Cricket Ground.^[2] Since the event became an Open, it has only been won by Robert Fahey and Camden Riviere, both of whom would be World Champions during their career. Notable matches included the 2008 final, the first match that Riviere would win against Fahey in their careers across all competitions^[3] and the 2013 final, with Riviere overcoming Fahey in 5 sets and three and a half hours.^[4] The event has not been held since 2015 due to a lack of sponsorship.