The window between the closing climax of the clay season at Roland Garros and the pinnacle of the grass season at Wimbledon has always been desperately small.
So players heaved a small sigh of relief back in 2015 when the All England Club moved a week later in the schedule to allow three weeks between Paris and London, but it remains a frantic time.
Extra grass tournaments came to fill the space— at least giving a little more flexibility for the players in making their transition from the contrasting surfaces—so the sigh of relief remains drowned out by the sighs of effort at almost a dozen grass tournaments across England and its European neighbours.
For the women, there are five events across the three weeks: three International level tournaments in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Nottingham and Mallorca, and two Premiers in Birmingham and Eastbourne.
The first of those Premiers, the Nature Valley Classic at Birmingham’s Edgbaston Priory Club, has always drawn big names and boasted big champions, the likes of Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova, and Angelique Kerber.
And while defending champion Kvitova has been forced to pull out with a left forearm injury—along with another former champion Madison Keys plus Garbine Muguruza—this year’s line-up is one of the strongest in the tournament’s history.
World No3 Karolina Pliskova will join Australian Open champion and world No1 Naomi Osaka and the newly-crowned French Open champion and world No2 Ashleigh Barty. It is the first time in the tournament’s history that it has hosted the top three players in the WTA rankings.
Also competing for the Maud Watson Trophy will be five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, the top-ranked Briton Johanna Konta, fresh from her run to the semi-finals of Roland Garros, and world No7 Elina Svitolina.
Pliskova, who is returning to Birmingham for a sixth time, was runner up in Birmingham in 2015 and is also a former US Open finalist, and a former World No1.
Williams will make her debut at the tournament after accepting a wildcard, and will be competing for her 50th career singles title. It is only the fourth time in her career that the 38-year-old American has played a grass tournament as part of her build-up to Wimbledon.
Barty is playing her first tournament since lifting the trophy at Roland Garros: She is one of four Major singles champions in the draw, alongside Osaka, Williams and Jelena Ostapenko.
Speaking ahead of the tournament, Barty said:
“In all honesty, this is a fresh start, a clean slate and a new season, jumping on the grass.
“I’m excited to be here in Birmingham. This is a time of year that I love playing tennis. It’s a strong field; it always is. Incredible field… The Club here is amazing—it’s got everything that we need. The more grass court matches you can get before Wimbledon, the better.”
Konta’s breakthrough run in the clay swing—and she had never won a match at Roland Garros in four previous visits—promises much for her favourite grass season.
She arrived in Paris with final finishes in Rabat and Rome, and then reached the semis in Paris. Perhaps not surprisingly, she modified her intended grass schedule to bypass Nottingham this week, a tournament where she has twice been runner-up, and will launch her grass preparation in Birmingham, and back it up in Eastbourne.
With more fuel in the tank, then, she will hope to make it past the second round in Birmingham for the first time, and then take a step beyond her two semi finishes in Eastbourne—her home town. Her initial match, though, is a tough one: Anett Kontaveit is ranked No20 to Konta’s 18.
She is joined in Birmingham by fellow Brits Heather Watson and Harriet Dart.
The facts and figures
Former champions in singles draw: None
Top seeds: Osaka, Barty, Pliskova, Svitolina, Aryna Sabalenka, Qiang Wang, Konta, Julia Goerges
Other key players: Kontaveit, Donna Vekic, Petra Martic, Su-Wei Hsieh, Lesia Tsurenko, Maria Sakkari, Williams
Britons in singles draw: Konta, Watson, Dart
Draw overview
No1 Osaka plays the fast-rising world No33 Sakkari in her opener, and is scheduled to meet No8 seed Goerges in the quarters.
No4 seed Svitolina is lined up for Konta in the quarters, with the winner heading, on paper, for a semi against Osaka.
In the bottom half, No2 seed Barty has drawn a tough opener against Vekic, ranked 22, who is in the final in Nottingham this weekend. The winner could meet Williams in the quarters, while Pliskova and Sabalenka will vie for a place in the semis in the other quarter.
Tickets: www.lta.org.uk/naturevalleyclassic
Mallorca (International): 17-23 June
Scheduled players: Angelique Kerber, Anastasija Sevastova, Belinda Bencic, Elise Mertens, Caroline Garcia, Amanda Anisimova, Sofia Kenin, Katerina Siniakova, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova
Eastbourne (Premier)—Nature Valley International: 23-29 June
Scheduled players: Barty, Pliskova, Kiki Bertens, Svitolina, Simona Halep, Sloane Stephens, Sabalenka, Konta, Sevastova, Bencic, Caroline Wozniacki, Marketa Vondrousova