WASHINGTON, December 6, 2021 (by Michael Dickens)
The WTA released its schedule for the first six months of the 2022 season Monday. A quick glance of the 31 hard court, clay and grass tournaments, which begins with the Australian Summer Series of Tennis on January 3 and continues through the Wimbledon Championships that concludes on July 9, suggests that it’s business more or less as usual in pre-pandemic terms.
However, the second half of the 2022 schedule – and much trickier half – which is to be determined and released later, includes the part of the WTA calendar that is usually filled with nine events in China and Hong Kong, which have been suspended in response to ongoing concerns about the safety and well-being of Chinese professional tennis player Peng Shuai.
The 49th year of the WTA begins in Australia, with the Adelaide International (WTA 500) and a pair of 250 series tournaments in Melbourne in the first week. The second week includes the Sydney Tennis Classic (WTA 500) and a second Adelaide International (WTA 250) leading into the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open in Melbourne.
February includes familiar indoor stops in St. Petersburg, Russia and Lyon, France as well as the Middle East Swing in Doha, U.A.E. and Doha, Qatar. The tour also returns to Mexico with a pair of outdoor hard court tournaments in Guadalajara and Monterrey.
March is dominated by back-to-back WTA 1000 series tournaments, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and the Miami Open presented by Itaú. Then, April is exclusively clay with tournaments in Charleston, S.C.; Stuttgart, Germany; Bogatá, Columbia; Istanbul, Turkey, and Madrid.
In May, the WTA Tour continues on clay with visits to Rome; Rabat, Morocco; Cologne, Germany; Strasbourg, France, and Roland Garros in Paris.
Then, the European grass season takes over June with tournaments in Nottingham, Birmingham and Eastbourne, Great Britain; s’Hertogenbosch, Netherlands; Berlin and Bad Homburg, Germany; and culminates with the Wimbledon Championships in London SW19.
“The 2022 WTA tour calendar will once again provide a prestigious stage for the world’s best female tennis players to compete on,” said Steve Simon, WTA Chairman and CEO, in news release published on the WTA website. “We are excited to get the new season underway and build on the popularity and legacy of our tournaments, while watching our stars and emerging talent showcase their sills to over 850 million fans worldwide.”
There are five WTA 1000 events – in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome – as well as eight WTA 500 events and 15 WTA 250 events scheduled during the first six months of the 2022 WTA season.
Click here to view the first half of the 2022 WTA calendar.
