Johanna Konta and top tennis stars are heading for Nottingham next month (June) for the Nature Valley Open at Nottingham Tennis Centre.
The tournament hosts players from the international level of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), as well as the challenger level of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
The ATP players are yet to be announced, but the WTA entry list includes big-name stars including Konta, Heather Watson, Australian number one Ashleigh Barty and 2016 Puerto Rican Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig.
This all-star line-up will see four of the top 25 women in world tennis rankings compete in Nottingham.
Magdalena Rybarikova (No.17), Barty (No.18), Naomi Osaka (No.21) and Konta (No.23) will all take to the court against 17 other female players from around the world.
WTA tournament director Rebecca James said: “It is fantastic to have four of the world’s top 25 in Nottingham and it shows how important this tournament is for the grass court season.”
Many of the top players use the Nottingham Open, as well as the other Natura Valley tournaments in Birmingham and Eastbourne, as a warm-up for Wimbledon which starts on July 1.
This worked well for last year’s Nottingham Open champion Konta, who was the first British woman to reach a Wimbledon quarter-final since 1984, where she was beaten by 2017’s runner-up Venus Williams.
The ATP section of the open has British No.3 Cameron Norrie confirmed on the entry list.
Major events director Oliver Scadgell said: “After a fantastic 2107 which saw all our grass court events deliver record ticket sales and excellent player fields, 2018 is about building on that success and making our tournaments even bigger and better.”
The tournament runs from June 9 to June 17. Tickets https://www.lta.org.uk/major-events/nature-valley-open/tickets/
