LTA hopes some fans can attend tournaments

THE LTA is “cautiously optimistic” fans will be able to attend its summer tournaments this year after the schedule was announced.

The grass-court season was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, meaning Wimbledon was not staged for the first time since the Second World War. But the tournament will return this summer along with traditional warm-up events at Queen’s, Birmingham, Eastbourne and Nottingham over sixweeks in June and July.

The grand slam in London is the showpiece event of the grass-court season and will take place between 28 June and 11 July, with organisers saying last week they were preparing for it to go ahead in front of a reduced capacity.

Queen’s, a men’s event, and the Birmingham Classic, a women’s tournament, will start on 12 June with a combined tournament in Eastbourne beginning on 19 June.

The schedule below the main tour has been reined back for this year.

Tournaments will not take place in Surbiton, Manchester or Ilkley, with the latter event moved to Nottingham to make two weeks of competition in the city for lower-ranked players.

The governing body has confirmed all events will go ahead behind-closed-doors if it is not possible to have spectators due to Covid-19.

An LTA statement read: “Whilst it remains too early to say what level of attendance will be possible, the LTA is planning for a number of scenarios and remains cautiously optimistic that fans will be able to be present at all its summer events this year ... The national governing body’s intention is for the events to take place even if they are behind closed doors.”