Hobart International

The Hobart International is one of the WTA 250 events taking place before the Australian Open in order to give players a proper chance to prepare for the first Grand Slam of the year.

Date: 8 - 13 January
Category: WTA 250
Surface: Hard
Location: Hobart, Australia
Venue: Hobart International Tennis Centre
Players: 32 players (WTA Entry List)
Prize Money: $267,082 (WTA Prize Money)
Points: 250 for champion (Distribution Overview)
Draw: WTA Draw
Official website: https://www.hobartinternational.com.au

The event has been part of the tennis calendar for a while, as it was first held in 1994. It belongs to the 250 tier of events and generally features rather solid entry lists, as the list of former champions can attest.

The event is generally held in the week leading up to the Australian Open, serving as a great way to finetune things for the players who maybe didn't get a lot of playing time in the first tournaments of the season or simply wanted to postpone their preparations.

It's played at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, which was opened in 1964 and renovated in 2011. The main court has a capacity of 2,800 seats, which saw some pretty big names lift the trophy on it.

The likes of Kim Clijsters, Petra Kvitova, Garbine Muguruza, Sofia Kenin, and Elena Rybakina all won the event in the past, and all of them are also Grand Slam champions.

The first-ever tournament was won by Japanese player Mana Endo, while Elise Mertens is the most successful player in its history. She has won the event twice so far, and believe it or not, she's the only player to have ever won the event two times in its almost 30-year-long history.

The tournament was briefly absent from the WTA calendar, as it wasn't held in 2021 and 2022, but in 2023, it returned to the calendar once again, and the 2024 season was no exception, once again providing players with great preparation for the first Grand Slam tournament of the season.

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