British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

telstar · Club Coach

Week 42 - WTT100 - Wrexham, Great Britain - Indoor Hard

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Surbiton was the same as Shrewsbury - a real club, with an excellent tournament, and lots of members helping out, very friendly, a good atmosphere - so sad those ones have gone

Nice write-up about Hannah and the other results of the day on:

wrexhamopentennis.com/news/british-teenager-hannah-klugman-through-to-the-second-round-at-the-lexus-wrexham-open/

Lambda_ · Intermediate Club Player

Some of the things that have been said about Wrexham are a little odd, in particular comparisons with Shrewsbury.

Shrewsbury and Wrexham are the same event in different locations. Wrexham is organised and delivered by the same company and management team that owned Shrewsbury Club and delivered the Shrewsbury W100.

In addition to the in-house cafe, there is a food zone offering pizza and pasta, Greek street food and artisan coffee and snacks

Just as in Shrewsbury, there are events on throughout the week. Today is for Year 12 and 13 students (6th formers in my day) to get a hands on experience at the university in sports analytics and sports psychology with the afternoon watching the tennis. Friday is for primary school children with on court activities, a Q&A with a player and watching a match. Saturday is the Mini Wrexham Open for junior tennis clubs. There is an evening with Annabel Croft although that is a stand alone event and their is the usual networking event with JoKo among those present.

Ticket prices are on a par to the last Shrewsbury event, allowing for inflation. In 2024, qualifying was £7.50, Tuesday to Thursday was £17.50 and quarter-finals onwards were £22.50.

As far as I can tell, the event seems to have been extensively promoted in the local media and on social media just as Shrewsbury was.

Shrewsbury took many years to build up to the event it was, building relationships with sponsors and getting it established as an event to attend with the locals. It will take time to get to the same place in Wrexham.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

But does Wrexham have club members?

From what telstar says, they don't, whereas Shrewsbury did

It certainly made a huge difference for Surbiton

A tennis centre (been to tons) do not have the investment of members and social aspect of a club

In Surbiton, there were tons of volunteers - does Wrexham have the same?

If there are club members who drop by, have a drink, they swell the numbers and create atmosphere, even if they're not paying for tickets

It's not to say Wrexham won't be successful in the future but the audience numbers for Dani's match yesterday were dreadful - certainly if you compared it, say, to the audience at the W50 in France (and maybe others - I was only watching those two at the time) - and seemingly this was the same as last year

sammmm · Club Coach

Coup Droit wrote:
sammmm wrote:
I think Eastbourne was a turning point for Hannah and then she had a good run at Nottingham hard courts and backed it up through August at Aldershot and Roehampton and culminating in her first title. As others have noticed its been her mentality and maturity that has progressed significantly and her talent has been rewarded for that
I think it was before Eastbourne - I think it was Queens
She was SO close to a major win, against a very good player, she had a lot of friends and family there, she played really well, and she seemed really chipper and excited after that
And she was playing far more on the front foot after that, a little further up the court, rather than getting pushed 3 metres behind the line all the time - the tennis definitely changed - she more sure of herself

Went back to check and youre right she pushed S Zhang very close in a 3 setter at Queens before a strong run at Nottingham where she crushed Dart in round 1 and then lost a tight 3 setter in the first round at Eastbourne to Valentova. She was competing hard in every match during those grass Wimbledon warmups

paulisi · Tennis legend

Forget the discussion on price.
The ITF events in the UK other than externally supported promotions are very poorly supported and are free.
Whenever i go, you are lucky to get 20 supporters(even juniors). The remainder are family, friends and coaching teams

PS how does the promoter make money from these events. It must cost 250K+ to run. I assume the LTA, Welsh Sport and Wrexham council cover a large chunk.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Forget the discussion on price.
The ITF events in the UK other than externally supported promotions are very poorly supported and are free.
Whenever i go, you are lucky to get 20 supporters(even juniors). The remainder are family, friends and coaching teams

PS how does the promoter make money from these events. It must cost 250K+ to run. I assume the LTA, Welsh Sport and Wrexham council cover a large chunk.

But this is a challenger, not a 25 or 50 ITF event

As in, it's the women's version of a challenger

Compared to other Challenger events (even the indoor ones - obvioulsy the 'grass on a sunny day' ones are easier sells), there was hardly anyone at Dani's match

Is that because it's women's tennis? Or Wrexham? Or because Dani hadn't been publicized as a new 'star' (whereas maybe Hannah had been)?