TICKETS for the 2024 Lexus Ilkley Trophy have only been on sale a matter of days, but already they are going fast.

The popular pre-Wimbledon tournament will be held at Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club’s (ILT&SC) grass courts on Saturday, June 15 to Saturday, June 22.

Advance purchase ticket sales have been available from Tuesday, March 5 and the general public could buy tickets for the North of England’s biggest tennis tournament since Tuesday, March 12.

However, tickets are already nearly sold out for Wednesday, June 19, Thursday, June 20 and Friday, June 21, despite the seating capacity on Centre Court being increased for a second successive year, this time to around 1,500.

Rik Smith, who is chairman of ILT&SC but also tournament director of the Lexus Ilkley Trophy, said: “Hospitality tickets have already gone on sale and we are looking to be sold out on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in terms of pre-sale, where we have had a huge take-up.

“The infrastructure has already been signed off so we know now that we are going to have 1,500 people on Centre Court, which was our aim for this year. Last year it was something like 1,100 or 1,200 (and in 2022 it was around 750), so we are starting to max out what that capacity can be on Centre Court.

“Also we have a much larger public area, taking over some of our tennis courts and putting in hard standing for food and beverages in what will be a Fan Park, and we will be live streaming on a big screen the matches on Centre Court, which will also enable us to show some of the football matches from the Euros, which will act as a bit of competition for the tennis this year and will keep people there after the tennis has finished.

“The increased capacity is a response to selling out year on year.”

Meanwhile, themed days, introduced last year, will again be a key part of the eight-day event.

Smith said: “We will have Yorkshire Day on the first Saturday for the men’s qualifiers, and that is a free entry day for everybody, not just our members. That will be a real celebration of Yorkshire tennis.

“On the Sunday, we have Father’s Day, and there are a few activities going on in and around that, and later in the week we will have Sponsors’ Day, Ladies’ Day on the Thursday, which has been very popular and I think that will sell out very quickly, and then we have the Finals Day on the Saturday.”

The Ilkley Trophy, which started in 2015 and is being held for the eighth time in 2024, missing two years because of the pandemic (2020 and 2021), is both an ATP men’s challenger event and an ITF Women’s World Tour event.