The Lawn Tennis Association ups its game for women tennis players

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the sport’s governing organisation in Britain, has recently announced a series of new initiatives for women tennis players in its attempt to improve the game for women. The first is the reintroduction of women’s tennis at the Queen’s Club.

For the first time since 1974 the Queens Club in West London is hosting a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 500 event prior to a men’s event to be held there the following week. This is good news for the Queens Club which previously had a prestigious and long history of women’s tennis.

This tournament was first held in 1881 in Fulham under its former original title of ‘London Athletic Club Tournament’ and was renamed as the ‘Queen’s Club Tournament’ when it moved to West Kensington, London in 1890 where both men and women’s singles events were held. Later a men’s doubles event was added (1903) followed by a mixed doubles competition (1905) and finally a women’s doubles event in 1915.

The return to Queen’s will showcase again some of the best of today’s women’s tennis players currently performing on the international circuit.

The events were suspended during the first and second world wars and then continued in its original format until 1974 when the women’s events were dropped from the itinerary and moved to a new home in Eastbourne. This was said at the time to be because the venue at Queen’s could not accommodate both the women’s and men’s events simultaneously. The women’s singles finalists in 1974 were Olga Morozova and Evonne Goolagong and in the doubles Rosie Casals and Billie Jean King played against Françoise Dürr and Betty Stöve, all of whom were household names at the time.

Women’s tennis returns after more than 50 years

The return to Queen’s will showcase again some of the best of today’s women’s tennis players currently performing on the international circuit. The LTA said women returning to the Queen’s Club will “Raise the profile of the women’s game and increase the visibility of the sport at the beginning of the grass court season.”

In another development the LTA have also announced that they will make female athlete health a top priority

In another development the LTA have also announced that they will make female athlete health a top priority, and to achieve this have introduced a series of new programs for women players. These range from education to medical screening to nutrition which they say is an effort to ensure that “female athletes receive the comprehensive support they need to optimize and enhance performance and well-being.” As part of this new scheme there will be a place where players can consult a gynaecologist for scans, contraceptive advice and to raise any particular health concerns they might have.

In addition, there will be a series of podcasts, hosted by the LTA Chief Medical Officer and other medical specialists, which will feature leading experts talking about critical female health issues. With this, combined with the advice on nutrition strategies, the LTA are taking a holistic approach to improve the sporting health of women tennis players. The National LTA Coach, Katie O’Brien, has welcomed these measures as a means to support British female players to help them to achieve their best performances.

The popularity of women’s tennis has increased dramatically in recent years.

To cap this, the LTA, in alignment with the Women’s Tennis Association’s previous announcement, has committed itself to prize money parity for the women’s and men’s competitions no later than 2029. At last, this overdue measure recognises that women’s tennis is as important as that of the men’s game. There is much evidence to support this.

The popularity of women’s tennis has increased dramatically in recent years. In 2024 it was the number one women’s sport attracting a cumulative global audience of nearly one billion fans in more than 150 countries with a 25% growth in the number of social media followers. Increasing the number of women’s court events and prize money is an important step in making tennis truly gender balanced. All this sends a powerful message to new generations of girls taking up the sport for the first time that when they pick up a racquet and play their success at the game will be recognised.