The Eastbourne International, also known as the Aegon International, is now a combined men’s and women’s grass-court event starting the week before Wimbledon. There used to be a separate men’s tournament that week in Nottingham but due to lack of sponsorship for the Eastbourne event, the LTA decided to merge the two in 2009.

In a buck to the trend, the men’s tournament pretty much plays second fiddle to the women’s event which attracts all the household names. The leading male players have generally opted to take this week off in recent years after a solid three weeks of competition at the French Open and then Queens/Halle.

It opens the door for some of the lesser names of the tennis world to take the spotlight with the likes of Andreas Seppi and Michael Llodra getting their names on the trophy since the move to Eastbourne. 

These days the top five are all generally in action in the latter stages at Roland Garros but back in the ‘90s it wasn’t the case and so the old Nottingham Open would often see a host of leading stars honing their grass-court games. Former US Open champion Greg Rusedski won two titles and 2002 Aussie Open champion Thomas Johansson also triumphed one year.

To watch free live streams of the Eastbourne International online, simply open a free account with one of our fully licensed live streaming partners such as bet365. To access the live feed, go to bet365 > live streaming tennis.