HAVING successfully re-established itself on the international calendar after two years affected by the pandemic, what is the future for the Lexus Ilkley Trophy?

The Wimbledon warm-up tournament, first held in 2015, had its fifth staging in 2019, but then missed 2020 due to Covid 19 and was moved to Nottingham the following year because of the lack of a bio-secure ‘bubble’ in Ilkley.

Since then, however, tournament director Rik Smith and his able crew of volunteers have seen the $125,000 ATP Challenger and $100,000 ITF Women’s World Tour event not only put itself back on the global grass-court calendar but grow in stature in terms of prestige, infrastructure and crowds.

Looking ahead to 2024, what choices are there for the North of England’s premier tennis tournament at Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club?

Of course, it could stay at the level that it is now or it could increase the prize-money to $250,000 for the men and join the main ATP Tour or $125,000 for the women and be part of the second-tier WTA Series, moves which will inevitably involve more hoops being jumped through.

A decision like that though is not just down to Smith, who is also Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club’s chairman, and he understandably does not want to be too gung-ho in his thoughts.

However, what he did say in the aftermath of this year’s tournament, held from Saturday to Saturday (June 17-24) for the first time, was: “There is a complete grass-court review going on at the moment between the All-England Club and the LTA, and that will involve the three tours – the ATP, WTA and ITF.

“There are a lot of conversations to take place, but what we have done this year and last year is really put ourselves at the forefront of their thoughts.

“We have made sure that we have done everything possible to ensure that we are established on the tour calendar and that they want to keep us as the biggest tennis tournament in the North of England, and that is what we have tried to do.”

Smith, who admitted that his stress levels were as high as they have ever been as a tournament director over the initial four days of intermittent rain this year, also confessed that he gets to see very little tennis during those eight days due to running hither and thither.

He said: “This time I have probably seen about two hours of tennis all week because there is a huge amount that goes on behind the scenes, and that isn’t just me, whether that be Chris Harrison, the club general manager, or Kyle Brassington, and then you have the transport and accreditation sections who are just stuck in offices and the tennis just goes on around them without them ever seeing it.”

Smith, a likeable chief, also doesn’t mind getting his ‘hands dirty’, whether that be moving white picket fences in front of the hospitality marquee or other menial jobs and has admitted that he gets sucked into the whole team ethos at the event.

Meanwhile, Ilkley Lawn Tennis & Squash Club are holding their second and third biggest tournaments next week – the Grade Two Lexus British Tour event, which runs from Monday, July 31 to Saturday, August 5, and the Ilkley Open, which runs from Saturday, July 29 to Saturday, August 5.

The men’s field for the British Tour includes former winner Jordan Reed-Tbomas, from Leeds, while Ilkley interest will be provided by Arun Bahia, Jack Batchelor, Scott Hillerby, Tom Horsley and JB Pickard.

In addition, there is Settle’s Tom Horsfall.

Players to keep an eye out in the women’s singles are Sheffield’s Sarah Copley, Huddersfield’s Molly Robinson and Ilkley’s Alice Brook, cousin of England cricket star Harry, and Zoe Judkowski.