After a five year absence, the WTA Tour will return to Poland in July with a new event in Gdynia.
It’s been five years since there was professional tour tennis in Poland after the axing of the event in Katowice in 2016.
But now Polish Tennis fans won’t have to wait any longer to see WTA tennis in their country again as it has been announced that there will be a tournament in Gdynia in July.
Set for the 17th-25th of July, two weeks after Wimbledon, Gdynia will host some of WTA’s top stars.
However this is not just a one-year wonder, Tennis consulting has signed a multi-year agreement with licence owner Octagon to hold the event for many years.
President of Tennis consulting is Tomasz Swiatek, the father of grand slam champion Iga Swiatek, and he has high ambitions for the event, “We want to create an event that will become a strong brand in the world of sport and attract Polish tennis stars,” Swiatek told Polski-tenis.pl.
“Given the global reach of the sport, I hope that the tournament in Gdynia will also be a great promotion of our country abroad.”
Speaking on the tour returning to Poland, WTA CEO Steve Simon has no doubt that this latest event will be a huge success, “We are pleased with the return of the WTA Tour to Polish and I am confident that the WTA 250 in Gdynia will be a world-class event,” Simon said.
“Poland has a rich tennis tradition and great players from the WTA series from Agnieszka Radwanska to rising star Iga Świątek. We are sure that the tournament will be very successful in combination with the support of great Polish fans.”
The tournament director will be two-time grand slam doubles finalist, Marcin Matkowski who says that this event will be a huge platform for Polish tennis players, “We are pleased that many weeks of talks with Octagon have been successful and Poland has been awarded a high-ranking tournament.”
“As a former player, I know how important it is to give Polish tennis players a chance to play in such a big event, because a good performance will help break through in the world rankings.”
The event will have a prize money pool of 235,000 euros and will look to host some amazing tennis in the Polish coast over the eight day period.
