The Diamond Games (due to sponsorship known for the last time as BNP Paribas Fortis Diamond Games and before that Proximus Diamond Games, GDF-Suez Diamond Games and Thomas Cook Diamond Games) was a professional women's
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
tournament organised in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, , Belgium. The tournament took place in the
Sportpaleis
The Antwerps Sportpaleis ( eng, Antwerp's Sport Palace), also called Sportpaleis Antwerpen, Sportpaleis Merksem or simply the Sportpaleis, is an arena in Antwerp, Belgium. It is a multipurpose hall where concerts, sporting events, festivals and f ...
, at the beginning of February.
In 2009, with the restructuring of the
WTA Tour
The WTA Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125K series, and third-tier is the ITF Women's Circuit. The men's equivalent is the ATP Tour.
WTA Tour tourna ...
and the retirement of both
Kim Clijsters
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters (; born 8 June 1983) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, ...
and
Justine Henin
Justine Henin (; born 1 June 1982) is a Belgian former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in te ...
, the tournament lost its status of being a WTA Tour tournament and evolved into an annual exhibition tennis event before returning to the WTA calendar in 2015. Later this year, however, WTA announced that in 2016, the Diamond Games would be replaced on the WTA calendar with a new tournament in
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, Russia.
The Diamond Games offers a trophy to any player who wins the singles three times in five years. In 2007,
Amélie Mauresmo
Amélie Simone Mauresmo (; born 5 July 1979) is a French former List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 tennis player and tournament director. Mauresmo won two Grand Slam (tennis)#Tournaments, major singles titles at the ...
won a golden racquet decorated with diamonds. A new trophy was unveiled in 2008, which featured a golden racquet and a ball, and was decorated with 2008 diamonds.
Past finals
Singles
Doubles
See also
*
Belgian Open – women's tournament (1987–2002)
*
Brussels Open
The Brussels Open, unofficially also known as ''Open de Bruxelles'', was a professional women's tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held in Brussels, Belgium. It was first held in 2011, replacing the Warsaw Open. The 2013 edition was held May 20â ...
– women's tournament (2011–2013)
References
External links
*
{{Justine Henin, state=collapsed
Tennis tournaments in Belgium
Hard court tennis tournaments
Indoor tennis tournaments
WTA Tour
Sports competitions in Antwerp
Recurring sporting events established in 2002
2002 establishments in Belgium
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2015
2015 disestablishments in Belgium