The Shrewsbury Club has teamed up with Shropshire Festivals to make this year’s World Tennis Tour W60 Shrewsbury tournament a real festival of tennis - with tickets now on sale for the prestigious event.

Extra hospitality evenings and fun interactive events for all the family will be included in a busy programme when the tournament takes place between March 30 and April 5.

Outside of the grass court season, this is the biggest women’s tennis event in the UK in 2020, with The Shrewsbury Club chosen by the Lawn Tennis Association to host the Budgen Motors World Tennis Tour W60 Shrewsbury tournament for the second successive year.

Leading British players and international stars - expected to include players ranked in the world’s top 100 - will compete to lift the Citroen Trophy at the $60,000 event.

Evening matches will feature alongside a busy daytime schedule at the Sundorne Road venue’s indoor courts.

Dave Courteen, The Shrewsbury Club’s managing director, said an exciting programme of events has been put together to run alongside the tennis - and he’s delighted to have joined forces with Shropshire Festivals.

"The whole idea is to make the week a complete festival of tennis,” said Dave. "That’s why we are so pleased to be working with Shropshire Festivals as they are renowned for staging amazingly successful festivals, such as the Shrewsbury Food Festival, Kids Festival and OktoberFest.

“To have them working alongside us and sharing their knowledge will help ensure the whole week is a true festival of tennis that everybody can enjoy.

“We are also happy that celebrity chef Marcus Bean will be joining us to prepare a two-course meal at our VIP lunch on finals day, which will be held on a Sunday for the first time this year.”

Beth Heath, director of fun for Shropshire Festivals, said she's looking forward to being involved with the tournament.

“We will be adding extra hospitality events, including a family fanzone day, sponsored by Ellesmere College, on semi-finals day,” she said. "It will feature lots of family tennis activities with interactive games, including fastest serve.

"The children will have the chance to hit with some of the leading players on court, while food and drink will also be available.

“There’s a number of exciting hospitality running alongside the world class tennis throughout the week, with lots of live music, food and drink, and different activities for guests to enjoy.

“This is an excellent event for Shrewsbury. It’s exciting for local people and also very good for local tourism with the number of visitors the tennis helps attract to the town.”

Match and hospitality tickets are now on sale from a brand new tournament website.

Tournament passes to watch all matches throughout the week are available priced £21 for members of The Shrewsbury Club and £40 for non-members.

Day tickets start from £5 for non-members - free for members, on the opening day, Monday, March 30, for the first round of qualifying - through to £9 and £17.50 for members and non-members respectively to watch the singles and doubles finals on Sunday, April 5.

They can be purchased by visiting www.worldtennistourshrewsbury.com

Dave added: “A weekly pass, which gives access to every single match, represents excellent value. Court-side seating is available from the qualifying rounds, with stadium seating in place from the second round onwards.

“We are proud to have been asked to stage such a high-profile event which brings world class sport to the county.

“The professional tennis tournaments we stage are always very well supported by the Shropshire public, which we really appreciate. We hope that local tennis fans will again turn out in force to make this year’s event a huge success.”