WTA event in Birmingham to be downgraded from next summer
With Wimbledon encouraging a new occasion, the grass-court tournament in Birmingham is being downgraded from summer.
The Nature Valley Classic, held two weeks prior to Wimbledon, is the largest women-only tournament played in the united kingdom because being raised to Premier standing from International about the WTA Tour in 2014 and has attracted the world’s greatest stars.
This year Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty, Karolina Pliskova and Venus Williams played at Edgbaston Priory nevertheless, it’s continued to be mesmerized by the men’s event at Queen’s Club, and the huge outlay involved in prize money has not yet been matched by similar increases in ticket sales or sponsorship, meaning that the championship has been working at a substantial loss.
Birmingham will have to compete with Berlin to attempt to entice players, while other changes add a women’s championship in Bad Homburg, Germany, supported by former Wimbledon winner Angelique Kerber along with a men’s event in Majorca.
The other championships in Eastbourne and Nottingham are unaffected.
Outgoing Wimbledon chairman Philip Brook explained:”A powerful and successful grass-court period is absolutely essential to the future of grass-court tennis and thus the potential success of the Championships.
“Having labored to expand the grass-court period to be a meaningful gap between Roland Garros and Wimbledon, we are pleased to be creating these substantial additional investments to ensuring quality grass-court tournaments can be supplied in any way levels of the game for your best interests of their players and the tennis ”
The championship in Birmingham was held in 1982 and winners have included Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova, Kerber and Petra Kvitova.
By lifting the trophy to the first time French Open winner Barty surpassed Osaka to become reality Number 1.
The low prize cash commitment – down from $1m (roughly #800,000) to $250,000 (approximately #200,000) – will allow the LTA to put more investment to community events across the contest.
Chief executive Scott Lloyd said:”We’ve worked closely with the All England Lawn Tennis Club about the programs for next year’s grass-court season.
“The Nature Valley Classic at Birmingham will be one of the LTA’s important events next season and like all of our events – will provide opportunities for tennis enthusiasts to get closer to the game.”
‘s-Hertogenbosh (ATP and WTA) and Stuttgart (ATP) will continue to sponsor ATP events in the very first week, with Queen’s Club and Halle (ATP) in the second week. While Bad Homburg is set to host a WTA event, that will be subject to consent, with events from Istanbul and Antalya being revised an ATP 250 event in Mallorca will be added to the calendar at the week.