By Owen Morgan

Wales’ top tennis tournament is back on Bank Holiday Monday – bigger and better than before.

Last year’s inaugural LTA British Tour event in Penarth was a huge success, drawing in rising tennis stars from around Britain and beyond.

The 2018 men’s singles winner, Llanelli’s Evan Hoyt, has since won major tournaments in Europe, Australia and the USA, which have seen him rocket up the world rankings.

The Windsor Lawn Tennis Club in Penarth is the only Welsh stop on the LTA British Tour – previously known as the Aegon Tour.

The tournament – free for spectators and sponsored by the Chiltren Group – is one of just 11 events on the 35-date British tour which are rated as Premier or Tier One standard.

Although Hoyt won’t be back to defend his title, this year’s field is stronger overall than last May’s.

Windsor Lawn Tennis Club chairman Anthony Phillips said: “Last year, we were what we call a tier one, and this year we’ve moved it up in terms of prize money, so we are now a tier one star event, which is the next level to premier. You only have three or four premier tournaments in Great Britain.

“It’s the only tennis tournament in Wales which has professional tennis players taking part, therefore it’s the highest lawn tennis tournament in Wales by a long stretch.

“Players come from all over. Last year we had some from South America, Russia, generally they are on the circuit and come over for the British tournaments.

“A number of world ranked players have entered this year so the quality is pretty high. They’ll be hoping to get ranking points for the major tournaments.

“We’ve got a number of other budding Welsh players coming through. We’ve got James Story entered, who is the next star Welsh kid on the block. He’s a 1.1 player, which is the highest rating you can get on the British ratings.

“We’ve got our defending ladies champion Tiffany William, who is a world ranked player, coming back to defend her title.

“It’s a higher quality entrant field this time than last year. Last year we had 16 players enter the men’s tournament who were ranked 1.1, this year we have 21. Last year we had one lady ranked 1.1, this year we have three.

“The quality of entry has risen quite substantially and in terms of the number of entries. We had 44 men entered last year and 56 this time. We had 28 women entered last year and 48 this year.”

The 2018 tournament drew huge praise from the players due to its organisation and how they were looked after.
After the ladies final, William said: “I’ve been saying it a hundred times through the week, it’s the best organised British tour event that I’ve ever been to. They’ve really catered for the players and made it fun for us.”

Phillips says endorsments like William’s have helped increase the standard and numbers entered this year.
He said: “We were a new tournament last year, and let’s be honest, you say to these players ‘come to Penarth’ and they’ve never heard of it.

“Well now, because it was a very well organised tournament, it won best tournament in Wales last year.

“To be honest, we didn’t really know what made a good or a bad tier one tournament. It was our first so we thought let’s just shoot for the stars and aim for the best.

“So what we did was organise things like racket stringing on site, we organised free sports massage for the players, buddy hitting for the players so they’d turn up and there were warm-up practice courts going on.

“We put on family hosting so the players could stay with local families, which is better than staying in some hotel in the centre of Cardiff where you don’t know anyone.

“So we really pulled out the stops to make it feel a mini-Wimbledon if you like. I don’t think a lot of the tournaments put anywhere near that sort of effort in.

“For the finals, we counted up over 500 people came to watch and over 350 people were there at any one time. For these players, that’s quite a good crowd.”

Men’s winner Hoyt said after last year’s final: “I’ve played in Tier One British tour events where there’s been one man and his dog watching the final, so it’s great to have a big home crowd.”

Phillips is hoping this year’s event will drawn an even bigger attendance across the week which begins with the qualifying rounds on Monday, May 6 and continues to finals day on Saturday, May 11.

“It’s free for spectators to come along and watch,” says Phillips. ” The clubhouse will be open for hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and snacks.

“We’re creating more of a festival of tennis this year so we’ve got junior county squad training sessions going on, we’ve got fun tournaments, a fastest serve speed gun competition.

“We’ve got an over 60s competition going on; tennis is a sport for all ages, we’re promoting it to the older generation too.

“We’re growing the event from last year and just generally trying to promote tennis.”

Further details about the tournament are available here: https://britishtourpenarth.co.uk/