TICKET sales are booming for the 2023 Ilkley Trophy.

The North of England’s biggest tennis tournament will be held at Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club from Saturday, June 17 to Saturday, June 24, two weeks before Wimbledon.

The popular grass-court tournament is a $125,000 ATP Challenger and a $100,000 ITF Women’s World Tour event, and tournament director Rik Smith says: “Ticket sales are well ahead of last year.

“Already we have surpassed the total number of tickets sold just before the event last year, and we are still have weeks to go.

“We are nearly sold out on finals day on Centre Court, and we are looking at 80-90 per cent sold on the Friday and about 60-70 per cent sold on the Thursday.

“There is unreserved seating which runs from Sunday to Wednesday and then allocated seating on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, although on Thursday and Friday there is still a lot of tennis on the outside courts so a ground pass for those days is a good option.”

There will be themed days at the tournament this year, starting with a celebration of Yorkshire Tennis on June 17.

Smith, who is also Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club’s chairman, said: “This will be fantastic and will emphasise the good things that have happened in the county, such as being national Men’s County Cup champions.

“It will be a celebration of all things Yorkshire tennis, and then the Sunday will be a combination of men’s qualifying, men’s first round and ladies’ qualifying.

“If the weather is good to us we should have a bumper weekend with a huge number of matches which will be free to our members on the Sunday and relatively inexpensive for the public.

“Monday is our Members’ Day, where we thank our members who do a lot of voluntary work at the club throughout the year, so they will be in hospitality, and on the Wednesday and Friday we have more corporate days with sponsors such as Investec, who will be entertaining clients, so it is a good opportunity for some networking for local and regional businesses.

“Traditionally we have Ladies’ Day on Thursday, taking our lead from horse racing events, and it has been incredibly popular in the past.

“We have sold out in the hospitality areas and also via our members, so we expect that to be a bumper day.”

Smith also revealed that spectator capacity on Centre Court has been increased this year by almost a third.

He said of the total number of seats: “There will be well over 1,000 nudging towards 1,100. Last year it was about 760.”

As for the switch this year to Saturday to Saturday, rather than Sunday to Sunday, Smith admitted that it gave the tournament an opportunity to make a bigger thing of the opening weekend.

He said: “We have had to bring forward the men’s qualifying to Saturday as opposed to having it on the Sunday, and the ladies’ qualifying will start on the Sunday.

“We are doing free entry on the first day, as we have in the past, not just for members but for the public, and hopefully that will create a lot of interest and a good family atmosphere.

“The ATP have always been resistant to having a tournament finish on the Sunday if qualifying for one of the majors is starting on the Monday.

“Because our tournament is within the same country it creates less of a problem, but they want consistency throughout the year.

“It could be quite restrictive if someone is playing abroad on the Sunday and travelling to major qualifying on the Monday in a different country.

“They want us to finish the men’s on a Saturday and it was our decision to also finish the women’s on a Saturday.”