Australian Open Highlights Strength of Lexus Wrexham Open player field

Harriet Dart and Olivia Gadecki picking up the Doubles Trophy for winning the ITF World Tour W100 Shrewsbury title in 2023. Gadecki, on the right in the photo, has just won the Mixed Doubles title at the Australian Open and becomes a Grand Slam champion! Photo Richard Dawson

Whilst the massive multi-million dollar pay cheque picked up by Elena Rybakina as she grabbed her maiden Australian Open title may seem a world away from the $15,000 prize handed out at the Lexus Wrexham Open, a look back at the first Grand Slam of the year highlights just how important the tournament is in the career path of a professional tennis player.

With one in five of the players in the main 128 player draw, having played either in Wrexham or Shrewsbury, where the event was staged before its short move across the border, there was ample evidence of how the Lexus Wrexham Open can justify its claim to be showcasing world class tennis on our Wrexham doorstep.

The significance of Mimi Xu’s title win was amplified when she just made it into the qualifying for the Australian Open, the first time she has made a Grand Slam event without the benefit of a wildcard. Without the world ranking points she won at Wrexham, she wouldn’t have made the cut. This is a valuable experience for the eighteen-year-old rising star from Swansea who is now inside the world’s top 250 and is now the British number six. Although her Melbourne experience ended at the first hurdle in a 3 set defeat, Mimi has shown the resilience and determination to continue her rise up the rankings.

A simple check up on previous winners of the Lexus Wrexham Open saw 2024 champion and British number two, Sonay Kartal fall at the first hurdle to seeded player Anna Kalinskaya. Viktorija Golubik the 2023 winner also went out in the first round in a close three set match whilst the most famous holder of the Bob Kerr trophy, Marketa Vondrousova, succumbed to injury and had to withdraw hours before her first-round match.

It is in the Doubles where we found more success for Wrexham alumni. Harriet Dart won the 2023 Shrewsbury title with Australian, Olivia Gadecki and it was Gadecki who lifted the Mixed Doubles title in Melbourne with her Aussie partner Jonathan Peers, beating another player to grace the local courts in Kristina Mladenovich and her partner in the final.

Who knows where the next Grand Slam success will come for a player who we saw close up in action at Wrexham and we will look forward to Roland Garros in Paris to see what opportunities that provides!