The Boodles Challenge is a grass-court tennis exhibition which is held at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, Great Britain.
| Date: | 25 - 29 June |
| Category: | Exhibition |
| Surface: | Grass |
| Location: | Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, Great Britain |
| Venue: | Stoke Park |
| Players: | TBA |
| Prize Money: | TBA |
| Points: | None |
| Official website: | https://www.theboodles.com/ |
The Boodles Challenge is one of the exhibition warm-up tournaments held prior to a Grand Slam tournament. Like the Kooyong Classic, which is played before the Australian Open, the Boodles Challenge is held shortly before the Wimbledon Championships.
The tournament was first held in 2002 when it was called the Boodle and Dunthorne Champions Challenge (BDCC). It was started by Patricio Apey, a sports agent, who organized a tournament together with Boodles, which is a British jewelry company.
The first edition was won by successful doubles player Max Miryni. Over the years, the likes of Ivan Ljubicic, Mikhail Youzhny, and Fernando Verdasco succeeded at the popular grass-court exhibition event.
Until 2014, the tournament always had a champion, but as a warm-up exhibition event, it moved to a freer format in 2015, when it basically started organizing exhibition matches over multiple days, with no particular draw or path to the title for players.
Although untraditional for tennis players competing on the ATP Tour, the format proved to be a great success as tennis fans got to enjoy many high-quality matches, while players got to choose how much they want to play before the season's only grass-court major.
In 2020 and 2021, the tournament was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2022, it was canceled as the Stoke Part, the tournament's venue, was undergoing renovations. In 2023, the tournament returned again.
The likes of Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray competed at the Boodles Classic. In 2024, the tournament celebrates its 20th anniversary.
