Ace Ventura wrote:

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So in line with the new ATP grass event in Mallorca which JonH referred to on another thread, Birmingham has officially been downgraded into an international event from next year. There's general disappointment on Twitter, but I still generally think it's better. When you currently only have 3 top 200 players, and MDWC and QWCs to hand out, the lower level will be far more appropriate for our crop in the current landscape. The grass season will also have a bit more of a fresher feel to it from a general perspective with distribution of the higher level events.

There's also likely to be an additional WTA international in Bad Homburg (Germany) running alongide Eastbourne, but that hasn't been totally approved yet, but likely to take over the license of the WTA Instanbul clay event in April. WTA Mallorca has gone (replaced by Birmingham).

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 Thanks Ace. Has wta mallorca gone? The article on the mens site implies the organisers are doing atp Stuttgart, wta mallorca and atp mallorca in consecutive weeks?

JonH comes home wrote:

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Ace Ventura wrote:

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So in line with the new ATP grass event in Mallorca which JonH referred to on another thread, Birmingham has officially been downgraded into an international event from next year. There's general disappointment on Twitter, but I still generally think it's better. When you currently only have 3 top 200 players, and MDWC and QWCs to hand out, the lower level will be far more appropriate for our crop in the current landscape. The grass season will also have a bit more of a fresher feel to it from a general perspective with distribution of the higher level events.

There's also likely to be an additional WTA international in Bad Homburg (Germany) running alongide Eastbourne, but that hasn't been totally approved yet, but likely to take over the license of the WTA Instanbul clay event in April. WTA Mallorca has gone (replaced by Birmingham).

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 Thanks Ace. Has wta mallorca gone? The article on the mens site implies the organisers are doing atp Stuttgart, wta mallorca and atp mallorca in consecutive weeks?

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 Yeah definitely gone. The organisers were referring to the new WTA premier event in Berlin, which they are also running, as part of the 3 in a row.

JonH comes home wrote:

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_WTA_Tour

Not official but confirming what ace says.

At season end trip back to Moscow and Luxembourg seems a strange trip, maybe that is also the same in 2019?

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 I see it is. Seems strange scheduling approach in retrospect 

Hear what you're saying Harry, and it's those in the area that attend who will suffer the most, but it should be a decent enough field anyway, just clearly not as strong as last year, as that will now be with Berlin. Most top 50 players will want at least 1 tournament on grass before Wimbledon and this is the prime week to play - Nottingham is often too soon for those expecting to, or making the 3rd round and beyond is Paris, and some are reluctant to play the week before a slam, but Eastbourne has benefitted for being the only option that week for those who do (until next year).

Mallorca is obviously a generally more attractive location to play than Birmingham (or any other location in the UK), and better players will be attracted by the guaranteed weather, so it likely won't be as strong as that field last year when that was the 2nd grass event that week, but I'd imagine it will be something in between Nottingham and Mallorca last year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Nottingham_Open__Women%27s_Singles#Top_Half
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Mallorca_Open_%E2%80%93_Singles#Top_Half

You'd still expect Konta to be there, and maybe a(nother) top 10 player, and a few more in the top 30, plus maybe a chance of a GB qualifier or two, like Tara in Nottingham last year.

the addict wrote:

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Downgrade the tournament - and up the prices

Lee
@yelnats_eel

19m
WTA Birmingham Premier 2019
10 day season ticket: £215

WTA Birmingham International 2020
10 day season ticket: £264

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 that makes no sense, ridiculous decision