Tickets for 2012

Less than two hours on from Andy Murray's great win over Novak Djokovic in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semi-finals, I thought I'd post a reminder about tickets for this year's Eastbourne event - where there's just a few hours left of the special purchase period, ahead of the general sale. Unfortunately, Murray and Djokovic - and also Federer and Nadal - seem unlikely to participate in this year's Eastbourne event. As a Premier WTA tournament, but only an ATP 250 event, it attracts plenty of the top-ranked women, but far less of the top-ranked men. The only realistic chance of one of the aforementioned male players entering the tournament would be if they didn't get enough matches at the Queen's Club or Halle events the week before. Last year, however, the Eastbourne men's field did include Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Lleyton Hewitt and finalist Janko Tipsarevic, on his way to the world's top ten.

So, the tickets for the 2012 event, taking place from Saturday 16th - Saturday 23rd June: this year the LTA have appointed The Ticket Factory(TTF) to handle the sales and distribution (it was SeeTickets for the previous two years). Weekly centre court tickets are available by telephone only - not online. The UK phone number is 0844 581 1540. The special purchase period, allowing 2011 customers to book the same seat as last year (at 2012 prices), will close in a few hours - midnight UK time. After that, weekly tickets will still be available but, we're told, there are no guarantees the same seat will be available throughout the whole week.

The General Sale of tickets will not begin until 10am on Saturday 10th March. The Ticket Factory's box office phone number is 0844 581 3015, and the website is http://www.theticketfactory.com/.

Before then, this weekend sees the only opportunity to buy tickets in person at the Eastbourne box office, before the week of the tournament. The box office is at the International Tennis Centre, Devonshire Park, College Road, Eastbourne, BN21 4JJ, and will be open 9am - 5pm Saturday 3rd March and 9am - 2pm Sunday 4th March. Unlike last year, however, this box office will also be open one day before the tournament begins - Friday 15th June, 11am - 4pm.
Weekly Centre Court tickets are £200 (except for restricted views - £100 -£110). Full price centre court tickets are £27 per day, Sunday through Tuesday, then take a hike to £39 from Wednesday. The semi finals on Friday and finals on Saturday are £41 per day - with major reductions for restricted views, again. The good news for this year is that the first Saturday, 16th June, is Free access for ALL the courts. The bad news is that the seats in the North and West Stands of Court No.1 will be ticketed from Monday 18th through Friday 22nd. This means that those with only a ground pass can no longer see the big names in action on this court. Centre Court ticket holders will still have access to Court 1, but only the East Stand - more restricting.

Children are eligible for free ground passes every day, provided the "child" (aged 16 and under!) is accompanied by a paying adult, and the "child"'s ticket is requested when the accompanying adult purchases their ticket. Child ticket prices for Centre Court tickets are substantially less than adult tickets: £7 per day Sunday through Tuesday, £11 - 13 per day from Wednesday onwards. Adult ground passes are £14 per day Monday through Friday, £5 on finals day. Adult Court 1 tickets are £20 per day Monday through Thursday - again, substantially less for children. And there is a £2 reduction on ALL tickets for BTMs (British Tennis Members) and groups of 8 or more.

For more information, the somewhat complicated ticket system is presented clearly on the home page of http://www.eastbournetennis.com/, and there are also full details on the tournament's official website, http://www.aegoninternational.co.uk/.

2012 looks like being a big year for Eastbourne's Aegon International - the world's biggest grass-court Wimbledon warm-up tournament. Held just a few weeks before the Olympic tennis tournament takes place at Wimbledon, there are already rumours that the world's top players will use the Eastbourne venue for extra preparation for these two massive events. Don't delay investigating your options for tickets!