A new women’s grass-court tennis tournament will be held on the Spanish island of Mallorca starting in 2016, the WTA has announced.The 32-player event will take place on the home is-land of men’s world number one Rafael Nadal two weeks before Wimbledon, at the same time as the Birming¬ham tournament.”With the grass court sea¬son set to expand next year, it was important for the WTA to provide players and fens alike with a fresh op¬portunity to experience the expanded grass court tennis season,” WTA Chair and CEO Stacey Allaster said.The tournament will be played in the second week of a three- week grass- court window between the clay- court French Open and Wimbledon.The venue will feature five permanent natural grass courts, including a retail devel¬opment and tennis academy.Construction and mainte¬nance of the courts will be done in collaboration with The All England Lawn Ten¬nis Club.
