After 30 years of sponsorship, one of the longest in Tennis history, Stella Artois are ending their support for the pre-Wimbledon grass court tournament held every summer at Queens’s Club, London.

The Championship more commonly known as the Stella Artois which takes place on 9th - 15th June 2008 will be the final time it is sponsored by them. Roger Draper, The LTA’s Chief Executive, said “As part of our new commercial strategy we are looking to market the sport as a complete package, rather than a series of individual events and programmes. Once we explained this new approach, ourselves and InBev(Stella’s producers) both agreed that now is an appropiate time for a change.”

As the worst rain & storms sweep across south-east England, tickets for the prestigous Wimbledon curtain rasier, the Lawn Tennis Association’s Eastbourne International Women’s Open Tennis Championships go on general sale today (1oth March), while previous customers were able to but tickets from 25th February.

According the the Mid Sussex Times, over 6,000 tickets were sold in the first week of sales.

This year seating for the event is divided into three tiers, with seats closest to the court starting at £22. We suggest booking early to avoid disappointment.

There is an interesting interview with Nikolay Davydenko in yesterday’s Independent newspaper where Davydenko talks candidly about, among other topics, the stress of coping with the match fixing allegations over the past year.

Davydenko has continually declared his innocence in the tennis betting and match fixing stories though his name more than any other is most frequently linked.

Andy Murray, the British no.1 men’s tennis player won the Open 13 title in Marseille yesterday.  Murray played a solid game, beating Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-3 6-4.

This latest victory gave him his fifth ATP Tour title and will most probably send him back into the top 10 world ranking.

Murray said this victory justified his recent controversial decision to skip Britain’s Davis Cup tie against Argentina.

If Murray is to progress even further in the worldof tennis then he will now need to perform better in the grand slams.

After considering a comeback, Monica Seles officially retired from women’s tennis last Thursday.

Her magnificent career included nine Grand Slam women’s singles titles and was cut short when she was stabbed in the back while watching a match in April 1993, at a tournament in Hamburg, Germany.

“I have for some time considered a return to professional play, but I have now decided not to pursue that,” the 34-year-old Seles said in a statement released by her agent. “I will continue to play exhibitions, participate in charity events, promote the sport, but will no longer plan my schedule around the tour.”

Monica Seles is known for her two-handed strokes and the loud grunting noise that accompanied her strokes. Seles won a total of 53 singles titles and first rose to No. 1 in March 1991. She was 17, at the time the youngest woman to have topped the rankings.

By the time she was 19, Seles earned eight major championships.

Before Novak Djokovic’s win in the Australian Open, the first major tennis tournament of 2008, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal had won the last 11 Grand Slam events.

Novak Djokovic’s grand slam win has catapulted him into the elite of the world’s top tennis stars.  But not many people had heard about him until he beat Roger Federer in the semi-final and then came from a set down to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.

I read a great article by Joel Drucker stating the importance of Djokovic’s tennis coach - Jelena Gencic, a former Yugoslavian women’s tennis player who played four Federation Cup games for Yougoslavia in 1973, and is now 71.

Maria Sharapova has made herself eligible for this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing by representing Russia in the Federation Cup last weekend. Following on from her Australian Open success, Sharapova won both her singles matches against Israel without dropping a set.Sharapova did not represent Russia at the last Olympic Games and her absence was conspicuous. Though she suggested she was not fit she did act as practise partner to the women’s team.

Hopefully her inclusion in this year’s Russia team will dispell rumours of her national pride and commitment. Anastasia Myskina famously questioned her patriotism in the past, suggesting she was more American than Russian.

Roger Federer is set to hire a coach after his shock early exit from the Australian Open last month.  Starting the tennis Open as favourite , he was beaten by the eventual champion Novak Djokovic in the semi finals.

Federer has not had a coach for the past few seasons.  In 2004, he won three majors without a coach; and last year went on to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open after parting company with well respected Australian coach Tony Roche.

“I don’t think I can change my game drastically, and I don’t think I should,” the world No. 1 said. “I have the possibility to vary my game, and that’s my big strength. In today’s game, it’s the details, so that’s what I have to keep working on. That’s maybe the reason why I have to look for someone else.”

Rumour has it Federer is about to link up with New York’s Paul Annacone, who has previously worked with Pete Sampras and Tim Henman, among many others.

In their continuing fight against match fixing charges, tennis authorities are stepping up the ante.

Legal action has been started by the French tennis authorities in a bid to stop internet betting companies taking bets on this year’s French Open at Roland Garros.

French Open organisers have moved to shut down internet-betting markets on their tournament by launching a case against three leading companies.  The Guardian reports that the cases were brought to two separate courts in Paris and Liège in Belguim.

The three defendants, Betfair, Ladbrokes and the Bwin .Interactive Entertainment were surprised by the files, even more so as to why they have been singled out over their competitors.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the young frenchman who knocked out Andy Murray in the first round shocked the world of tennis last night by thrashing world number two Rafael Nadal to reach the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park. He won the first set in an amazing 32 minutes!

In only his fifth grand slam tournament, the 38th-ranked Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outplayed Nadal and won the semi-final 6-2 6-3 6-2.

Reuters quotes Tsonga as saying:

“Just amazing… unbelievable… nothing could stop me today,” the 22-year-old grinned. “I tried to hit everything and everything went in, so… what can I say?”

Tsonga now awaits the winner of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s final.