Queen’s to host new pre-Wimbledon women’s tennis event as Birmingham miss out

Queen’s Club will host a professional women’s tennis tournament for the first time in more than 50 years – but at the expense of a similar event in Birmingham.

Queen’s has been an exclusively men’s event since 1973, but from 2025 it will start a week earlier and last for two weeks, with the women’s following immediately after the French Open.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has had to alter its calendar to accommodate, with the Birmingham Classic downgrading from a WTA 250 event to a Challenger-level tournament.

The West Midlands event will now feature both men’s and women’s events, but the clash with Roland Garros and reduced prize money means it is unlikely to attract the same caliber of names as before: seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, champion at the French Open, Barbora. Krejcikova, US Open champion Sam Stosur and two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur have all played in recent years.

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Chris Pollard, director of major events for the LTA, said: “We think the mix of men and women playing there will actually strengthen the proposition so that we can continue to grow that tournament as it has really grown over the last six years. .”

The new, smaller event in Birmingham will take the place on the calendar vacated by the Surbiton Trophy, which will end after 2024, with the LTA hoping those who previously played in south-west London will instead choose the Midlands to start their grass-roots preparations of court for Wimbledon.

“We’ve had the likes of Andy Murray who won Surbiton last year and Dan Evans is a recent winner of the Surbiton tournament,” added Pollard.

At Queen’s, concerns have also been raised by the men’s professional tour (ATP) about the condition of the grass courts, which are usually clean when the men’s event starts. Instead, one of the smallest venues of its kind will have to endure a week of wear and tear before the championships begin.

The LTA insists the ATP has been involved in talks for the past year and agrees to the schedule changes – but with an agreement to review the arrangement after a year. Pollard said: “They have given the green light for the tournament to take place in 2025 and we continue to have an ongoing dialogue with them regarding the success of the 2025 tournament.

“We have undertaken a great deal of detailed research and planning into how the men’s and women’s site performs and we remain absolutely confident that we will not only meet but exceed all men’s playing standards in the second of the fortnight of tours. There. “We remain very confident that it will be a permanent change.”

Queen’s uses just three match pitches, one of which has virtually no seating for spectators, and nine practice pitches, but sources say the extra load will be more of an aesthetic issue than a safety one.

“The courts are as good as Wimbledon,” says a source with expert knowledge of Britain’s two best grass courts and.

“It shouldn’t affect playability on the field at all, it’ll just mean the baseline is sacrificed at the end of it all. And for the start of the men’s tournament, he’s going to have quite a bit of wear and tear.”

Queen’s is a favorite on the men’s tour, having been voted the 500-level tour of the year in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2023.