Loading...
Buy your tickets to the summer grass court season
Skip to content

Rothesay Classic Birmingham

Edgbaston Priory Club, Birmingham 15 - 23 June 2024

Buy tickets
UK LOCAL TIME
0
0
:
0
0
:
0
0
WTA 250 logo

History

2 MINUTE READ

The Rothesay Birmingham Classic is a 250-level women’s tennis tournament, held at the Edgbaston Priority Club in Birmingham. Having been held at this location since its inauguration in 1982, the event is played on grass courts during the lead up to the Wimbledon Championships and is considered a sister tournament to the men’s cinch Championships at Queen's Club.

Former Wimbledon Champion Billie Jean King and Edgbaston Priory’s homegrown talent, Ann Jones, take credit for establishing the tournament in 1982 – with an aim to create an event in the region for showcasing international talent. The Classic also offered an opportunity for the LTA to respond to and give effect to its campaign at the time to strengthen grassroots tennis in the country, both recreationally and competitively.

The tournament was brought in as part of the WTA tour, which King had developed since 1973 to challenge the unequal treatment of female professional tennis players and bring more opportunities for them to play. Many of the top female players flocked to contest the Birmingham title, with the inaugural tournament seeing Tracey Austin, Hana Mandilkova and Sue Barker join the order of play.

The title has been won ten times by Wimbledon singles champions, including the likes of Ash Bartey and Petra Kvitova, and often by rising stars. Like all tournaments, the Birmingham classic has lived through changes and challenges including the increasing demands of the tour on competitor and the interruption of the pandemic.

The Rothesay Birmingham Classic has become a major source of inspiration for tennis lovers, a testing ground for athletes, and a badge of pride for the Edgbaston Priory Club in the place where lawn tennis began.

Check out our other tournaments

Tickets

Find out when tickets are on sale for this year's Rothesay Classic Birmingham and book.

Contact us

Find out how to contact us with any queries related to the Rothesay Classic Birmingham.

Title Partner

Official Partners

Official Supporters

Cookies on LTA site

We use cookies on our site to ACE your experience, improve the quality of our site and show you content we think you’ll be interested in. Let us know if you agree to cookies or if you’d prefer to manage your own settings.