Rebecca James, Tournament Director, LTA

Before too much time passes since the end of our incredible back to back combined events in Nottingham I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you, and your teams, for the role you played in making the events happen this year, for the Nottingham Open or Nottingham Trophy, or both! 

There is no denying that getting to the point of being able to deliver the events was an immense effort in itself, given that staging events in the current climate is extremely complicated and complex. It was a tremendous undertaking to put in place all the necessary protocols and procedures to ensure we were able to deliver a safe event in line with the conditions that were laid out to us by the UK Government and PHE.

I am always very proud of the sense of teamwork at Nottingham, that everyone comes together as one team with the desire for the events to succeed, and that it feels like a tennis family that has grown together over the years. More so than any other year (and that’s setting the bar higher consider the wet weather challenges we faced in 2019!), the success of this year’s event can be shared by everyone, as it was certainly an incredible team effort that enabled this year’s events to succeed.

And this year was certainly a success. Reflecting back on the complexities of what we were faced with, not only were we able to deliver against all aspects, it’s fair to say that everything went relatively smoothly considering this. This wasn’t achieved by chance though, rather a huge amount of commitment and dedication from you all, for which I am forever grateful.

While we were missing some elements of the event that have become integral to showcasing the sport to inspire more people to become involved in the game, such as the school festival, the fact that we were able to bring world-class tennis back to Nottingham Tennis Centre, to have these players showcase the quality of grass court tennis on such wonderful courts and to engage with fans (both in person and digitally) to enjoy live tennis in the UK once again is something very special.

I hope that next year we can return with less restrictions and more opportunity and in the meantime, thank you once again for being a part of a very extraordinary achievement, it would not have been possible without you.