WTA ‘open to exploring’ women’s event at Queen’s Club
Could we see women’s tennis held at Queen’s Club for the first time in five decades? There are plans to introduce a new WTA 500 event at the site in the lead up to Wimbledon.
A WTA 500 tournament could be held the week after the French Open finishes, with the men’s event held the following week.
With WTA 250 events in Nottingham and Birmingham, and the WTA 500 event in Eastbourne, it would mean Nottingham would be moved to the following week to accommodate Queen’s with Birmingham likely to be removed from the calendar.
The Edgbaston Priory Club first staged a WTA event in 1982, when Billie Jean King won the title.
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Olga Morozova was crowned last female champion at Queen’s Club
If the ATP can be persuaded, top women’s players could grace the courts of the west London club for the first time since 1973, when Olga Morozova was crowned the last female champion.
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With the men in line to start their week on used courts, the plans remain controversial, although LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd remains confident.
“We have got high confidence, and we have got significant evidence from the All England Club as to how grass courts wear over a two-week period,” Lloyd told BBC Sport.
“The grass courts at Queen’s are perfectly capable of delivering two weeks of professional level tennis. We’ve got the data.
“We think it would be great for that swing of tournaments and for the women’s events, particularly from a visibility and profile perspective.
“The ATP are important partners of ours and we are working with them to try to ensure that the players are happy and comfortable that the surface can sustain use.
“Typically players are pretty delighted to make it to the second week of Wimbledon and you don’t hear them argue too much about the court surface in that scenario. We are very hopeful that there won’t be any issues, but we are working through the logistics.”
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Carlos Alcaraz won the men’s singles final at Queen’s Club last year
A statement from the WTA read: “The WTA is always open to exploring options for new tournaments to continue to build a strong future for women’s tennis for our players and fans. We continue to work through our 2025 calendar with our members and will update in due course.”
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