Nottingham Open brings WTA and ATP tennis to the city
Katie Boulter and Harriet Dart join international players competing for prize money and ranking points during Nottingham's week-long Wimbledon warm-up.
The Lexus Nottingham Open continues the country's passion for tennis this week, as the both women's and men's singles and doubles games start in earnest today after qualifying matches were played at the weekend. The Nottingham Tennis Centre venue is almost at centre court capacity for all days.
The two tournaments running this week are the WTA 250, which is the women's singles event, and men's ATP Challenger 125. The numbers indicate the ranking points awarded to each singles champion. Both events have 32 players in them, as well as a doubles track with 16 pairs.
The Nottingham tournament forms part of the LTA’s British grass-court season, which includes several Lexus-sponsored events around the country. Similar events are running in Birmingham, Eastbourne, and Ilkley to name a few. The highest-ranking tournaments in the British series are the WTA 500 and ATP 500 HSBC Championships at Queen’s Club.
With many events so closely packed together, players must balance opportunity against fatigue when choosing tournaments. Competing in consecutive events gives them the chance to earn more prize money and ranking points, but long runs can also increase the risk of exhaustion or injury.
The prize pots though can be alluring and a large source of income for professional players. The winner of the WTA matches will receive $37,390 (£27,898~), with a total prize fund of $283,347 (£211,418~). The men's singles prize is €30,460 (£26,292~), the prize fund being €203,900 (£176,001~).
One WTA competitor at the Nottingham Open this week will be Katie Boulter (29), from Leicester. She's playing in both the Queen's and our Open. She'll play another Brit, Harriet Dart, during the week. Both are "wild cards" in the tournament, who did not qualify due to their ranking, but because the organiser spotted potential in the play.
This all comes with Wimbledon around the corner on 29 June which many of the competitors will want to keep their stamina for. There, the prize fund is £64.2 million.
The Nottingham Open runs until Sunday.
