Queen’s Club to stage women’s event next year in run-up to Wimbledon – MASHAHER

The Queen’s Club will stage a women’s tennis tournament next year for the first time in more than a half-century, though it may prove to be a one-off.

The WTA event will take place the week after the French Open, ushering in the start of tennis’ short grass-court campaign and putting it among the warmup tournaments for Wimbledon. The men’s ATP Tour event will be held the following week.

Male players have raised concerns that the quality of the grass at Queen’s Club will be impacted by a women’s tournament being staged there first, and Chris Pollard, director of major events and digital at the Lawn Tennis Association, said the arrangement could end up only being for a year.

“We have absolute confidence that we can stage a two-week event at the Queen’s Club,” Pollard said. “Obviously the championships at Wimbledon prove that grass can withstand two weeks of tennis. We’ve got independent data that really provides a lot of evidence that the men’s week will not suffer in any way, shape or form.

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“We’ve had many discussions with both tours in respect of that. (The ATP) have given the green light for the tournament to take place in 2025 and we continue to have an ongoing dialogue with them in respect of the success of the 2025 tournament.

Pollard said the ATP Tour “would like to consider what happens after 2025.”

“But,” he said, “we remain in very close dialogue with them on that point and remain very confident that it will be a permanent change.”

The calendar change will see the WTA grass-court tournaments in Birmingham and Eastbourne, also in England, reduced in status.