Great Britain has become the latest country to take the route of domestic tennis to fill in the void of the ongoing Tour suspension due to COVD-19.
The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has announced the return of the British Tour during July. A total of four events will take place over as many weeks. Each tournament will have a field of 32 players with 16 men and 16 women. Participants are eligible to take part based on their current ranking providing they are a member of the LTA. All four tournaments will be held over three days (Friday-Sunday) at the National Tennis Center in Roehampton. There will also be doubles action with eight teams featuring in a FAST4 format over one day each week.
“Since the coronavirus crisis, we have been working incredibly hard to support all our players, venues, coaches and officials through this very challenging time,” LTA CEO Scott Lloyd said in a statement.
“I’m delighted to announce today the next stage of elite tennis’ return to competing safely behind closed doors as part of a five-phase plan coordinated by UK Sport with Government.”
“The LTA is actively engaged in developing the necessary guidelines for behind closed doors events, which we hope will be determined by the Government in the coming weeks to ensure the safest environment for anyone involved in returning to competition and look forward to bringing tennis back into people’s lives this summer.”
It is yet to be confirmed who will be playing at the tournament. Although both Andy Murray and Johanna Konta are expected to feature at some stage. Murray hasn’t played a competitive match since the Davis Cup finals last November due to pelvic bruising. The three-time grand slam champion had recently said that his rehabilitation is going according to plan but gave no further comment on when he expects to be back to full fitness. During an Instagram Live chat with Rafael Nadal on April 20th he said that he ‘felt pretty good’ without going into specifics.
In weeks two and four of the British tour there will be Premier-level events with a prize money pool of £16,000. Each of the winners will take home £2250. Meanwhile in weeks one and three those tournaments will be classed as a ‘Tier 1.’ The prize money is a 50% increase compared with previous British Tour events.
The British Tour is set to take place between July 3-26 but is still subject to government approval.
Top five British players
Men
1.Dan Evans (No.28)
2.Kyle Edmund (No.44)
3.Cameron Norrie (No.77)
4.Andy Murray (No.129)
5.Jay Clarke (No.167)
Women
1.Jo Kona (No.14)
2.Heather Watson (No.50)
3.Harriet Dart (No.146)
4.Sam Murray (No.180)
5.Naiktha Bains (No.212)
