World No. 1 tennis player ranks Eastbourne coffee shop as ‘one of her favourites in the whole world’

Ashleigh Barty raved about Nelson Coffee in a recent interview.

Speaking in an Instagram interview with @mojocrowe, Ashleigh was asked if she had any go-to cafes when she plays internationally.

Although the interviewer mentioned big capitals like London and New York in his question, she answered with Nelson Coffee – a local independent coffee shop situated opposite the train station in Terminus Road.

Ashleigh, a professional Australian tennis player ranked world number one by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), recalled how she woke up early in Eastbourne one morning and went out looking for somewhere open.

“I was rolling around Eastbourne trying to find something that was open and stumbled across this coffee shop and it was just brilliant.”

Eastbourne Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club is the home to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and WTA tour events – essentially the ‘warm-ups’ for Wimbledon, which takes place a week later in late June.

These events see all the biggest stars in the world of tennis, including Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, take part.

Ashleigh said, “For me it’s always a highlight of every trip when I know that I’m going back to Eastbourne and I can go to that coffee shop.”

Nelson Coffee aims to give people a ‘casual yet sophisticated’ experience, serving craft coffee, as well as food using the best local producers around.

They also have an online shop now, so you can get their goods delivered straight to your door.

Ben Nicholson, co-owner of Nelson Coffee, said “This was such a great surprise! Ash has been coming to the cafe for the last few years during tennis week so we knew she must like it, but we didn’t know she placed us in such high regard.

“It’s been a tough few months negotiating the Covid-19 pandemic, but this recognition of the hard work and passion our team puts in every day has given everyone a massive lift and the encouragement needed to keep doing what we do best - giving people a great cup of coffee!”