Changes to the 2020 Grass Court Season
• 4 MINUTE READ
Every year, the LTA works with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to deliver a strong grass court season in the build up to The Championships at Wimbledon.
We share a common goal of delivering a quality series of events - not only to provide appropriate playing opportunities to develop our British players, but also to give fans the chance to see high quality professional tennis played by some of the best players in the world, inspiring the next generation.
The four week grass court season currently includes ATP Challenger and ITF World Tour events in Surbiton, Manchester and Ilkley, with ATP and WTA tour events taking place across Nottingham, Birmingham, London and Eastbourne, spanning men, women and including ITF wheelchair tournaments.
Following discussions, the AELTC have today confirmed that the WTA Premier Event in Birmingham will be transferred to Berlin, with Birmingham set to become a flagship International event. Changes to the current grass court season will also see a new ATP 250 event in Mallorca and a proposed new WTA International event in Bad Homburg, which is in the process of seeking WTA Board approval. There will be no changes to the WTA International Event and ATP event in Nottingham, ATP 500 at Queen’s or the ATP/WTA Premier in Eastbourne.
Birmingham remains a core part of our programme of events in 2020 and beyond. It is a tournament that, throughout its 38 year history, has attracted big names including Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, and current world No.1 Ashleigh Barty.
It is an event, which for many years has provided a valuable opportunity to engage and entertain the local community. This year over 5000 local school children received LTA coaching as part of a schools roadshow and over 1,000 children visited the event itself to watch matches and take part in activities.
LTA CEO Scott Lloyd commented: “We have worked closely with the All England Lawn Tennis Club on the plans for next year’s grass court season. The Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham will continue to be one of the LTA’s major events next season and – like all of our events – will provide opportunities for tennis fans to get closer to the sport.”
In addition to the grass court season, we are committed to investing more and promoting tennis events all year round to take tennis outside of the traditional summer months, opening the sport up to wider audiences. This includes the GB Pro Series - featuring the best of Britain’s up and coming young players which takes place throughout the year and the ITF World Tour event in Shrewsbury in February, the highest level women’s event in the UK outside of the summer season. Our aim is to provide an all-year-round programme of tournament swings at the right times and performance levels to best support the development of players across the professional stages of our Player Pathway.
The Murray Trophy - Glasgow, an ATP Challenger event, celebrating the success of the Murray family takes place in September and in the last twelve months the LTA has hosted both Davis Cup and Fed Cup ties here in the UK.
This type of activity will continue – and grow – next year and beyond, as we provide more opportunities for people to play and watch tennis in Britain.
