- The new tournament will be held from June 9 to 16, just after the French Open
London’s Queen’s Club will host a women’s event next year for the first time since 1973, when the LTA announced a major change to their 2025 calendar.
The new tournament will be held the week before the men’s event, just after the French Open, from June 9 to 16.
It will serve as a prelude to the grass-court season and should provide a significant boost to the visibility of the women’s match before Wimbledon.
The sticking point in a plan that has been in the works for some time is the men’s concern about the condition the grass courts will be in by the time their event starts.
The LTA appears to have allayed these fears to some extent, but the men’s ATP tour has failed to get the event accepted as a regular feature on the calendar.
From next year, Queen’s Club will organize women’s events for the first time since 1973
It means the likes of Britain’s Katie Boulter can play at the same event as her partner Alex de Minaur
“We have been discussing this with the ATP for almost a year and they have given the green light for the tournament to take place in 2025,” said Chris Pollard, the LTA’s head of major events.
‘The ATP’s position is that they are keen to consider what happens after 2025, but we remain confident that it will be a permanent change.
“We are confident we can host a two-week event at the Queen’s Club. The Wimbledon championships prove that grass can withstand two weeks of tennis.
“We have independent data from the Sports Turf Research Institute that provides significant evidence that the men’s week will not be affected in any way and that the integrity of the courts will be preserved.”
The new tournament will be at the 500 level, the same as the men’s event, although unlike Wimbledon the prize money – determined by the tours, not the LTA – will be lower for the women than for the men.
There is an increasing (and welcome) shift in the tennis world towards more joint men’s and women’s events and the LTA has rearranged the calendar so that each venue will host events for both genders next year.
The ATP fears that the men’s tournament will be affected by the grass quality being lower than the women’s tournament that will take place the week before.
To make room for the Queen’s event, Eastbourne will be relegated to level 250 and Birmingham will drop back to a Challenger event, a step back that will coincide with the second week of the French Open and absorb the men’s tournament currently held in Surbiton.
These changes will have a significant impact on the quality of the field that the women’s events will be able to attract and appear to run counter to the LTA’s commitment to supporting high-level tennis outside London.
Simon Greenwell, Chairman of the Queen’s Club, said: ‘The Queen’s Club is delighted to be hosting a leading women’s tournament after an absence of 52 years. The Championships were first held at the club in 1890 as a joint men’s and women’s event and 135 years later we are proud to host both WTA and ATP tournaments on our historic lawns.”
