Tennis fans are eagerly snapping up tickets for next month’s ITF World Tennis Tour event at The Shrewsbury Club - with sales well ahead of last year.

Leading British and international players will be heading to Shropshire to play in the Budgen Motors W100 between October 15-22.

It is the biggest women’s tennis tournament, outside of the grass court season, to be played in the UK this year.

Marketa Vondrousova, who was crowned Wimbledon champion eight months later, won both the singles and doubles titles in Shrewsbury last year.

Daily admission tickets and weekly passes to guarantee a seat at all matches throughout the week are selling well, while three of the tournament’s hospitality events - the sponsors and players’ party, networking lunch and VIP lunch on finals day - are sold out.

Dave Courteen, The Shrewsbury Club’s managing director, said: “Considering we are still a few weeks away from the start of the tournament, the ticket sales are very encouraging.

“We have put together an exciting itinerary of hospitality events and it’s fantastic that three of them are already sold out, with limited availability for the others.

“In terms of ticket sales, more have been sold four weeks away from next month’s tournament than had been purchased two weeks before the start of last year’s event, so that’s great news.

“We have increased capacity on our centre court, the DMOS People Arena, to just over 570 seats for this year’s tournament.

“There was a record crowd for a Great Britain Davis Cup fixture in this country in Manchester last week, so there’s clearly a lot of interest in tennis, and we are delighted that we are set to welcome record crowds to The Shrewsbury Club.”

He added: “It will be a real festival of tennis and we are looking forward to finding out very soon which players will be heading to Shrewsbury to play.

“You only have to look at the quality of the players last year’s tournament attracted. 

"Marketa Vondrousova and Karolina Muchova have both gone on to reach Grand Slam finals and are now in the top 10 of the world rankings, while Katie Boulter and Jodie Burrage, who also both played in Shrewsbury, are now the top two ranked British players. 

“It’s wonderful for local people to have the chance to watch world class tennis so close to home.”

Ticket prices, which include a 40-page tournament programme, start from £7.50, with finals day tickets to enjoy both the singles and doubles finals on Sunday, October 22 priced £19.50. 

A tournament pass to watch all matches throughout the week from court-side stands is available for £59.

Tickets can be purchased via the tournament website at https://worldtennistourshrewsbury.com/tickets-and-events/#tickets