Nottingham Trophy (tennis)
The Nottingham Trophy (formerly known as the Aegon Trophy) was an annual tennis tournament played in Nottingham, England. The tournament was part of the ATP Challenger Tour and the International Tennis Federation (ITF Women's Circuit) as a $75,000 event. The tournament's key sponsor was Dutch insurance firm Aegon. The Aegon Trophy and Aegon Nottingham Challenge were the only Challenger events to be held on grass. The tournament was held at the end of May before the main tour's grass-court season starts. In 2015, the women's competition was upgraded to a WTA  International tournament with $250,000 in prize money, with a name of Nottingham Open. In 2021, an ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Women's World Tennis Tour event was held in Nottingham, under the name Nottingham Trophy. This event was supposed to be held as the Ilkley Trophy, but moved to Nottingham due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Location. The tournament is held annually at the Nottingham Tennis Centre within the University Park area of Nottingham. History. The city used to hold an ATP Tour event, the Nottingham Open; however, due to its failure to attracted big names the tournament was  merged with the women's Eastbourne International event in 2009. It was merged with Eastbourne due to the LTA wanting to attract an umbrella sponsor and a younger audience to Eastbourne. However, in December 2008, it was announced that Nottingham would take over from Surbiton, in hosting the grass court ATP Challenger and ITF event. It started in 2009, replacing the Surbiton Trophy due to the renovation of the facilities that had been undertaken at the Nottingham Tennis Centre. The tournament moved back to Surbiton for the 2015 season. A new WTA International competition commenced on 8 June 2015 instead