There are several reasons why female players will return to Queen’s for the first time in 52 years, including an ongoing commitment to the growth of women’s tennis, and the success of an event at Eastbourne.
The Lawn Tennis Association – the sport’s governing body in Britain – hopes the tournament will raise the profile of the women’s game and increase the visibility of the sport at the beginning of the grass-court season.
“This year fans will be able to enjoy both men’s and women’s tennis on the biggest stages that we can offer,” said LTA chief executive Scott Lloyd.
“We want to develop the tournaments so that the women’s events deliver a path to profitability and greater visibility for the sport.”
Queen’s will host the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 500 event that was previously at Eastbourne, which will now stage a 250 event in the build-up to Wimbledon, with Emma Raducanu on the entry list.
“Essentially, in 1974 the LTA decided to move the women’s event at Queen’s to Eastbourne,” Queen’s tournament director Laura Robson told BBC Sport.
“It did extremely well and eventually became a combined event in one week. At Queens, logistically it wasn’t possible. However, we can now create a two-week festival of tennis, which we know the fans want. This model is popular at other tour events when you can’t combine simultaneously.
“Montreal/Toronto is probably the best example of having a combined event that’s across different cities.”
The WTA Tour includes 250, 500 and 1000-level events – the categories denoting the number of ranking points awarded to the champion. Grand Slams award 2,000 points to the winner.
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