Jan Choinski – Ian Louis Harris

A Few Days In Eastbourne, Mostly For Tennis, 23 to 27 June 2026

Janie and I had enjoyed our time at Eastbourne so much in 2024…

A Few Days In Eastbourne, Mostly For The Tennis, 25 to 29 June 2024

…we decided to book the same three days of Eastbourne tennis for 2026: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Tuesday Evening

On the Tuesday evening, we met up with Linda Wrobel (formerly Linda Phillips) and her friend Yasmin for dinner. Yasmin was a very close friend of the late great Mark Phillips, Linda’s cousin. Linda and Yasmin became good friends in the wake of Mark’s illness and demise, nearly two years ago now.

Linda judged correctly that we would all enjoy each other’s company. Yasmin had been in town for the first couple of days of the Eastbourne tennis. Janie and I enquired about the comfort levels (or lack thereof) at Devonshire Park, given the unseasonal heatwave – the hottest June temperatures since records began.

Brutal, to be honest…

…said Yasmin. We wanted honesty, even though that answer wasn’t exactly what we wanted to hear.

We ate in the Thai restaurant in Sovereign Harbour. Same place as last time with Linda, but on this occasion, with the weather so hot, we ate in their outdoor harbour area which was a very pleasant temperature for evening dining.

It probably helped that England were playing a World Cup football match at the appointed hour – we could sit wherever we liked. Linda’s quite keen on football, but I sense that we didn’t miss much by missing that match.

Wednesday 24 June 2026 At Devonshire Park

We were on Centre Court, so we saw:

Jessica Bouzas Maneiro v Madison Keys

Jelena Ostapenko v Panna Udvardy

Felix Gill v Jan Choinski

Jack Draper v Jack Pinnington Jones

But we couldn’t sit in the sun for long periods – we normally wander quite a lot anyway – so we did a fair amount of shade-seeking walking around.

In so doing we found a shady spot in the walkway between Centre Court and Court Number One, where we caught glimpses of Toby Samuel and Arthur Fery playing their matches.

Toby – plucky but doomed to close matches with narrow defeats this grass season

Arthur Fery – remember where you saw him first.

We also spent a bit of time on Court Two – especially once there was a bit of breeze and shade on one side. There we saw a bit of:

McCartney Kessler v Anhelina Kalinina

Gabriel Diallo v Tomas Martin Etcheverry

Great view of Devonshire Park in all its glory from up there

Here’s a link to that day’s results.

We had a great day. And we were all set to come back and do some more tomorrow.

Thursday 25 June 2026 At Devonshire Park

Centre Court again, so we saw:

Kader Nouni in the umpire’s chair for one of our matches

Jelena Ostapenko v Zeynep Sonmez

McCartney Kessler v Madison Keys

Jack Draper v Gabriel Diallo

You can have too much of a good thing, so we decided to skip the fourth match on centre court and let our tickets be sold as charity returns for that match: Ugo Humbert v Quentin Halys.

Here’s the results sheet from this day.

Instead we enjoyed a quiet evening on the terrace of our lovely AirBnB in Pevensey Bay

Friday 26 June 2026 At Devonshire Park

Semi-finals day on Centre Court. We saw:

Tatjana Maria v Jelena Ostapenko
Petra Marcinko v Madison Keys
Zizou Bergs v Toby Samuel
Jack Draper v Ugo Humbert

It wasn’t quite so hot today and indeed we even had a little rain, briefly, after Tatjana Maria won the first set, which led to Jelena Ostapenko retiring.

During the retirement interval, I guessed that Jack Draper might have gone for his warm up and guessed correctly. Janie was well pleased as she had been hoping to see it.

Then another abbreviated match, as Petra Marcinko also retired after losing one set to Madison Keys:

Then an epic: Zizou Bergs v Toby Samuel:

Toby was doing great until we abandoned him, in order to have one last iced coffee and stretch our legs. It all went horribly wrong for wildcard Brit Toby while we were away.

Would Jack Draper fare any better against Ugo Humbert?

Oh well, never mind. We’d had a great time.

Here are the results from semi-finals day.

Homeward Bound – 27 June 2026

We left our lovely AirBnB quite early the next morning – but not early enough to avoid heavy traffic on the M25, followed by a sweltering afternoon & evening in London.

Still, we’d had a great time, so the journey for sure was worth it.

In the unlikely event that you want to see all the pictures – and there were plenty – click the Flickr link here or below:

A Short Break In Eastbourne, Mostly For The International Tennis Tournament, 25 to 28 June 2023

Camilla Giorgi practicing with Daddy

Having thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed, fun and friendly atmosphere at the Edgbaston Priory tennis tournament last year…

So-Called “Proper Tennis” At Edgbaston Priory, 17 June But Not 18 June 2022

…we decided to give Eastbourne International a try this year. That idea proved to be a resounding success. We loved the place and the tennis and everything about our short break.

We took an insane number of pictures for a three-night, two-day break. Here (and/or the picture link below) is the whole lot of them – just shy of 200:

If you prefer some words and a small sample of the pictures, don’t click, just read/skim on.

Sunday 25 June 2023 – Travel, Taking Root and Thai Grub

We booked an Airbnb house at the Sovereign Harbour end of town – beyond walking distance to the tennis but easy parking when at the house. The cricket & croquet club in Eastbourne runs an event parking arrangement for the tennis tournament that made a great deal of sense for us.

The house is lovely and that area quiet and well provisioned. We stocked up on picnic food at the main Waitrose in Eastbourne as we drove into town, thus we were set for our visits to the ground.

There is a selection of restaurants in the harbour. We chose the Thai one, which was a nice place with “Chinese-oriented Thai food” – i.e. mostly not too spicy and a lot of Chinese-influenced dishes mixed in with the traditional Thai curries.

In culinary terms, it reminded me a bit of Haozhan in Gerard Street and the late lamented Bangkok in Bute Street.

It was a very enjoyable way to start our break.

Monday 26 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day One

I was on picnic duties and rose early to make a tempting spread. Hot smoked salmon bagels and chicken sandwiches were the centrepieces that day, if I remember correctly.

We had front row seats on Centre Court that day. We saw:

Tomas Martin Etcheverry v Jeffrey John Wolf;
Shuai Zhang v Harriet Dart,
Daria Kasatkina v Anhelina Kalinina,
Ryan Peniston v Marc-Andrea Huesler.

*We cheered for JJ Wolf, who played very well*

*Etcheverry seemed uncomfortable on grass*

We took a stroll after the first set and snapped Maria Camilla Osorio Serrano playing Shelby Rogers on an outer court. It is that sort of place.

Shuai Zhang v Harriet Dart (see above pictures) was probably the match of the day.

After that match, we took another stroll. Janie got a bit groupie-like when she spotted Taylor Fritz just strolling around Devonshire Park.

At least Janie didn’t ask him for a selfie – plenty of people did!

*Daria Kasatkina bested Anhelina Kalinina on the day. Try saying that after a few drinks – just as well we weren’t drinking*

Ryan Peniston came off second best against Marc Huegler.

We took a late afternoon stroll, where we saw Jelena Ostopenko playing doubles on an outer court.

It started to get a bit chilly, so we didn’t stay for the “bonus doubles match” on Centre Court. We’d had a great day of tennis.

We even got to see some cricket as we walked around the cricket ground to get our car.

Janie loved the sun terrace at the back of our little house. It was just a bit too chilly to mull our day over a glass of wine out there, so we mulled indoors instead.

Tuesday 27 June 2023 – Eastbourne International Tennis Day Two

A similar picnic for Day Two; I was still on picnic duty. I say “I”, but actually we have a prima-donna of a picnic chef named Igor who comes to make our picnics when it is my turn. He insists on absolute silence and no-one else coming near the kitchen while he is creating his masterpieces.

The central pieces for this one were smoked trout bagels plus ham and cheese sandwiches.

*Janie snapped the Eastbourne front on the way to the ground*

We were five rows back on Day Two – arguably a better vantage point unless you are especially keen to be on camera! The selfie on the Flickr link near the top of this piece is from those seats.

We saw:

Liam Broady v Jan Choinski;
Petra Martic v Katie Boulter;
Bernarda Pera v Coco Gauff;
Zhizhen Zhang v Lorenzo Sonego.

We had an early stroll around this day, where we saw, amongst other things, Camilla and her dad training (see headline picture).

Were *Petra Martic* and *Katie Boulter going to play dressed like that?*

*Certainly not with Alex de Minaur and family looking on!*

*I sneaked a look at Mikael Ymer playing well on Court One*

*While Janie spotted Heather Watson on an outer court*

*Then back to Centre Court for some Coco (and Bernarda)*

The pick of the day’s matches was actually the one from which I expected the least. Zhizhen Zhang is a very promising player but had not really played before on grass, whereas Lorenzo Sonego has shown decent form on the surface.

That match proved to be a suitable finale to our trip.

We certainly aim to return to Eastbourne again. The people were friendly and the atmosphere at the tournament lacks the corporate glitz and heave-ho of the bigger, more prestigious tournaments. Our style, we felt.

Wednesday 28 June 2023 – Driving Home While Listening To The Lord’s Test

A testing drive, this was, listening to England bowl in cloudy conditions but without the necessary luck/penetration in the second Ashes test match. The next few days were to be Lord’s days for me, but this day was the one day this week where the only live sport was dodging the traffic and the bizarre manoeuvres of other motorists.