The WTA 2024 calendar already knows its complete layout. The governing body of the women’s circuit has required many months of debate, negotiations with various events and last-minute decisions, but the players already know what tournaments they will be able to play in the upcoming season, which is, to say the least… very busy.
Two more weeks of competition, the presence of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games between the last two Grand Slams, total presence in China, absence of minor tournaments that accuse the absurd ‘antitop10’ rules and surprising appearances, especially in the first quarter of the season. This could briefly summarize the major points of interest and debate in the WTA calendar 2024, which welcomes new events, says goodbye to others and is formed after more than eleven months of nonsense. Yes, the players ended the year without knowing exactly how to plan for 2024… but the WTA has not delayed any further and has made public a calendar with quite a few curiosities.
The season will begin in a australian tour which will give multiple options to the players. From December 29 we will see action with the United Cup dispute, in a first week of competition that embraces the return of the Brisbane tournament, in the 500 category (it also returns to the ATP calendar). From then on, the usual stops in Auckland, Hobart and Adelaide as a preamble to a Open the Australia 2024 which will be held from Sunday, January 14 until two weeks later, Sunday, January 28. Just after the first Grand Slam of the year, the news begins: the Linz tournament returns in the form of the WTA 500 the week immediately after the Melbourne tournament… and it will be, incredible as it may seem, the only tournament to be played on a hard court indoors all year round.
February is a month full of news, with tournaments that are born and others that disappear. The tournaments in Mexico will change dates and the WTA will make room for a tour of major tournaments in middle East, chaining the disputes of the WTA 500 in Abu Dhabi, the WTA 1000 in Doha and the WTA 1000 in Dubai throughout the month. There will barely be time to breathe: a week and a half later, and with two events as a preview (San Diego, a 500; Austin, a 250), Indian Wells (March 6 to 17) and Miami (March 19 to 30) arrive ), monopolizing the third month of the year and laying the foundations before the arrival of the clay court tour.
THE ALARMING LACK OF EVENTS ALWAYS
It is one of the most flagrant errors of the WTA, one that seriously harms the players, since it makes their lives impossible when competing at the WTA level. Before the Roland Garros preview, only one 250th tournament will be held… and it will be in Bogotá, on the other side of the world. Stuttgart, Madrid and Romea, three tournaments in almost four weeks that take in all the action, with no other alternative for the tennis players beyond the top-50 who, on occasion, have to resort to ITF tournaments. In this case, the only new thing about the clay tour is that the WTA increases its category (from 250 to 500) to the Strasbourg tournament, held the week before Paris. (from May 26 to June 9).
There is no news on the grass tour, which maintains the traditional scheme, with two 500 tournaments prior to Wimbledon (Berlin and Eastbourne). They will be in different weeks, as is usually the case, the only point that differentiates the women’s circuit from its men’s counterpart. After the London Grand Slam dispute (from July 1 to 14) will be when the fireworks arrive: the presence of the 2024 Olympic Games changes the summer panorama. There will only be two weeks off since the end of the third Major of the season, weeks that many will take advantage of to go to Palermo, Budapest, Prague or Hamburg, 250 tournaments that could serve as a launching pad for the Parisian event. Games, by the way, that will coincide on the calendar with a whole transatlantic event like the Washington (category 500).
Without rest, the circuit will look to North America with the preparatory tour for the US Open. A novelty: the Monterrey tournament is relocated and will be played in the week before New York, a real nonsense in terms of logistics (imagine chaining a trip like Cincinnati-Monterrey and going, without any break, to New York; it will be difficult for Mexicans put together an attractive list of players). He US Open will take place from August 26 to September 8 and will mark the end of the Grand Slams season, although the WTA has a stop that is increasingly expanding over time: China.
ASIA, CLAVE
Gone are the days of complaints about Peng Shuai and the alleged conversations and debates over the treatment of human rights in the Asian country. Steve Simon redoubles his bet in the market that the WTA has been exploiting for the last decade, adding new stops and extending a tour to which many players arrive with a tank of gas in reserve. Still to be decided is the return to the WTA 1000 of Wuhan, provisionally announced, not confirmed; where the circuit will go is Beijing (WTA 1000), Seoul, Zhengzhou and Tokyo (WTA 500) and Ningbo, Osaka, Guangzhou, Nanchang and Hong Kong (WTA 250). The return of Wuhan, by the way, means that the Guadalajara tournament, which will be played in the week after the US Open, drops to the 500 category.
Without yet knowing the date and place of the WTA Finals 2024 and with the great objective of avoiding the disaster of astronomical proportions in Cancun, a calendar that will last two weeks is thus formed. Events disappear from the calendar Lyon, Ostrava, Warsaw and Cluj, which leads us to Linz being the only place where there will be indoor conditions. Curious, also, that at least one 500th tournament is played in each week prior to a Grand Slam, in what seems like a bet by the WTA to strengthen that transition week, in addition to the already mentioned total commitment to the Asian market and the continuation of WTA 125 tournaments, among which new places are already visible such as Vietnam (in Linz week). We leave you photos, just below, of the dates and the complete calendar.
2023-11-14 07:39:58
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