Women’s tennis will return to the Queen’s Club for the first time since 1973 as the LTA confirmed that a prominent new event will begin the grass-court season in west London from 2025.
The WTA 500 tournament will be held at Queen’s, the famous club in Baron’s Court, in the week after the French Open, the first of the three-week grass-court season before Wimbledon. It will be immediately followed by the men’s ATP 500 event at Queen’s, remaining in its usual spot.
The LTA has cited the move as an opportunity to provide the Women’s Tennis Association with another significant high-profile event in Britain and a greater spotlight for women’s tennis. While the men’s and women’s events are both at the 500 level on their respective tours, the tournaments will not boast equal prize money.
“We have been looking at how we can improve that calendar,” said Chris Pollard, the LTA’s digital and events director. “We wanted a significantly higher profile start to the grass-court season. And that the three weeks before Wimbledon allow us to maximise visibility for tennis both in Britain and globally. We want to promote women’s tennis. Give an appropriate and equal platform to grow the audience.”
After meetings with the Association of Tennis Professionals this spring, particularly regarding what state the courts would be in for the men’s event after a week of wear, the LTA says that the ATP gave the tournament the green light to advance with the consecutive events. During this process, LTA representatives have repeatedly asserted that the men’s tournament would not be negatively affected.
“We have absolute confidence that we can stage a two-week event at the Queen’s Club,” said Pollard. “It goes without saying that the [Wimbledon] Championships itself has proven that the tournament can withstand two weeks of tennis.
“The other thing we, with the All England Club, have heavily invested in is independent research over many years on the quality of grass as the tournament goes on. We’ve gotten independent data that we’ve taken from the Sports Turf Research Institute that really provides a lot of evidence that the men’s week will not suffer in any way, shape or form.”
Moving the 500 to Queen’s will mean further changes to the overall grass season calendar. As recently as 2019, the Birmingham Classic was a 500 event, but next year it will be demoted to an ATP Challenger and ITF event, which will take place in the second week of the French Open, replacing the Surbiton event.
The Eastbourne International, meanwhile, known for attracting a significant amount of top players and large crowds the week before Wimbledon, will also be downsized to a WTA 250 event alongside the ATP 250.
The move will also mean that the three most significant annual British tennis tournaments will all take place in London, limiting the geographical spread of top level professional tennis, but it will certainly provide a far greater platform for women’s tennis than any other existing venue in the country.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek beat Coco Gauff for the 10th time in 11 matches to reach the final of the Italian Open in Rome. The two biggest young stars in the women’s game are likely to do battle many more times in their careers but Gauff has a lot of work to do if she is to make it a real rivalry. She defeated Swiatek in Cincinnati last summer but has failed to win a set in the other 10 matches and, despite a great start on the Italian clay, fell to a 6-4, 6-3 loss.
