The Birmingham Classic is an outdoor grass court event that began in 1982. It is a part of the WTA 250 series on the professional women’s tennis tour. It is held in Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham. The tournament acts as a warm-up event for players before Wimbledon.
The tournament has a singles and doubles event. The main draw size of 32 in the singles draw has slots for six players from a qualifying draw of 24, and 4 wildcard entrants. In doubles, sixteen teams feature in the draw. Both events are played in the single elimination knockout format.
All matches are played in the best of three sets format. Players need to win six games with a difference of two games to win a set. If a set score reaches six games apiece, then a tiebreak decides the outcome of the set. Players need to win seven points with a difference of two in the tiebreak to win the set. The doubles matches feature a tiebreak set if it comes to the decider. The doubles teams that is first to ten points with a difference of two points in this tiebreak is declared the winner.
The singles and doubles champions of the event gets 250 ranking points. The runners-up of these events get 163 ranking points. As of 2024, the total prize money that the tournament has to offer is $267,082. The winner of the singles event gets $35,250 whereas the doubles team gets $12,280.
Pam Shriver is the most successful player in singles, having won four titles at the event. The most successful doubles player is Cara Black, who had been a part of four champion doubles side.
