What an honour it was to see the legend @Venuseswilliams practicing at the Birmingham classic tennis tournament on Saturday 🎾 #rothesayclassic
2023 Birmingham Classic Preview including Krejcikova, Venus Williams, Svitolina and Ostapenko
WTAMonday, 19 June 2023 at 07:00
The 2023 Birmingham Classic is due to take place between June 19-25, 2023 with a host of top names and former Grand Slam champions involved.
Usually a double header on the other side of the Midlands in the UK, Nottingham was the first stop to begin the grass court season.
Birmingham follows with Eastbourne the big one before Wimbledon takes place. As ever TennisUpToDate brings you through the main talking points in a preview.
Venus Williams set to return to the UK
Despite being 42 and heading towards the twilight of her career, Venus Williams as a multiple Grand Slam champion and a legend of the sport is still a huge draw.
Unlike her sister Serena Williams too, she has continued playing and at smaller level too meaning that those who attend these WTA 250 tournaments could get to see her for one of the final times.
Birmingham Classic is her next stop. There was a lot to like about her display last week at Libema Open 's-Hertogenbosch and she will face Camila Giorgi in one of the standout first round games.
Svitolina returns to grass after superb clay court return
The remaining big names are mostly clay court specialists or former Roland Garros winners.
Elina Svitolina proved her form on clay in recent months winning titles in a similar stature tournament in Strasbourg as well as reaching the Quarter-Final at Roland Garros.
This of course mere months after becoming a mother with the husband wife tandem of her and Gael Monfils returning at the same time.
Albeit with differing fortunes as Svitolina showed that the class was very much still there.
How to assess her grass court game? A semi-finalist in 2019 at Wimbledon which was her best by a mile, she got to the second round that year as the third seed losing to Magda Linette.
The only surface she has failed to win a title on, she will hope to put that right this week.
Roland Garros champion wise, there is the presence of Jelena Ostapenko and Barbora Krejcikova also in Birmingham.
One player who won't be there is Beatriz Haddad Maia with the Brazilian who was defending champion injuring her knee in Nottingham last week.
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