The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has confirmed the schedule for the first half of its 2021 season, with four WTA 1000 events planned before the Wimbledon Championships in the summer.
The WTA had already confirmed the schedule for the first seven weeks of the 2021 calendar, with the season having begun earlier this week with the Abu Dhabi Open. Australian Open qualifying will begin next week before Melbourne hosts the first grand slam of the year from February 8-21.
The newly-announced provisional calendar will run until July 11 and incorporates four WTA 1000 events in the shape of the Dubai Open, the Miami Open (pictured), the Madrid Open and the Italian Open in Rome. The latter two events will be held back-to-back in April and May.
The WTA said the current schedule reflects a traditional calendar for the Tour, albeit with a few changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The calendar does not include the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells following the recent postponement of the event.
Following the Australian Open, a WTA 500 event will be held in Australia and another in Doha, Qatar before the first WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai. St Petersburg in Russia will then stage a WTA 500 event from March 15 ahead of the Miami Open.
Thereafter, the calendar will include the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, the Billie Jean King Cup (formerly Fed Cup), the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart and the aforementioned Madrid Open and Italian Open.
The calendar also incorporates the Roland Garros grand slam, which will begin on May 23, before the grass-court season gets underway with the Nottingham Open on June 7 and concludes with Wimbledon, which runs from June 28 to July 11.
Further updates to the calendar, including dates for the WTA Finals in Shenzhen, will be announced in due course.
Image: Christophe95/CC BY-SA 4.0/Edited for size
