About the Lexus Wrexham Open
The Lexus Wrexham Open is one of the most exciting events on the women's professional tennis calendar — and one of the most improbable. A world-class ITF W100 tournament, attracting players from across the globe competing for vital world ranking points and $100,000 in prize money, held inside the intimate, atmospheric indoor arena of Wrexham Tennis and Padel Centre.
In 2025 the tournament became the best attended ITF W100 indoor event in the world, with over 60,000 hours of play watched on BBC iPlayer alone. With big screens, live music, a festival street food zone, and a roaring crowd inside a compact indoor venue, the Wrexham Open delivers an atmosphere entirely unlike any other tennis event in Britain — part Grand Slam, part community festival, all Welsh.
The tournament is co-organised by the LTA and Tennis Wales, promoted by Mosaic Group, and forms part of the LTA's Performance Competitions Calendar — designed to give British players the chance to compete at the highest level on home soil.
🎾 Official Tickets
Buy Wrexham Open tickets — sell-out expected
The 2025 event sold out. Book early — tickets went on sale 1 May at 9am. Day tickets, week passes, and hospitality packages available.
Buy Tickets ↗
The 2026 Tournament
The 2026 edition takes place from Sunday 18 to Sunday 25 October 2026 at Wrexham Tennis and Padel Centre, Plas Coch Road, Wrexham. All matches are played indoors on hard courts, making it a weather-proof event regardless of what October in North Wales decides to deliver.
New for 2026 is the street food zone — a covered area offering a variety of spectator food options as part of the festival atmosphere. Also returning is One Point Grand — the unique one-point knockout tournament featuring tournament players against local amateurs, with the winner picking up £1,000.
Title Defence — Mimi Xu 2025 Champion
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🏴 2025 Champion · Wrexham
Mimi Xu — Singles & Doubles Champion
Welsh teenager Mimi Xu, from Swansea, capped a remarkable 2025 season by winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Lexus Wrexham Open — the first professional tournament of her career on Welsh soil. The same season, Xu became the first Welsh player in the Wimbledon main draw for 20 years. Will she defend her title in 2026?
Past Champions
The Wrexham Open has a remarkable track record of identifying future stars. Three of its recent champions went on to achieve extraordinary things within months of lifting the trophy at Wrexham Tennis Centre:
| Year | Champion | Nation | What Happened Next |
|---|
| 2025 | Mimi Xu 🏴 | Wales (GBR) | Singles & doubles winner · First Welsh player at Wimbledon main draw in 20 years⭐ |
| 2024 | Sonay Kartal 🇬🇧 | Great Britain | Beat Heather Watson in an all-British final · now world top 50 |
| 2023 | Viktorija Golubic 🇨🇭 | Switzerland | Billie Jean King Cup winner · Olympic Silver medallist |
| 2022 | Markéta Vondroušová 🇨🇿 | Czech Republic | Won Wimbledon Ladies Singles Championship nine months later⭐ |
The Experience
The Lexus Wrexham Open is far more than a tennis tournament. Tournament week brings together business events, hospitality, food, live entertainment, and community activities across Wrexham. Whether you are there to watch the tennis or simply soak up the atmosphere of a city in full cultural bloom, there is something happening on and off the court throughout the week.
- Indoor stadium atmosphere — big screen videos, music, and a roaring crowd in a compact indoor arena
- Street food zone (new 2026) — covered festival food area with a variety of spectator food options
- One Point Grand — unique one-point knockout tournament: tournament pros vs local amateurs, £1,000 to the winner
- Business events and hospitality — packages available throughout the week for corporate visitors
- Wrexham Ready podcast — behind-the-scenes content hosted by Rose Courteen, updated weekly from July
- Official merchandise — tournament apparel available from Networld Sports
🎟️ Don't Miss Out
Wrexham Open tickets — last year sold out
The 2025 event was a sell-out. Day tickets, week passes, and hospitality experiences are available — buy early to avoid disappointment.
Secure Tickets ↗
Padel at Wrexham Tennis & Padel Centre
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New for 2025 · First in North Wales
Three covered padel courts — open to all
Wrexham Tennis & Padel Centre opened North Wales's first dedicated padel courts in January 2025. No membership required. Equipment hire available. Sessions available for all ages and abilities — from complete beginners to competitive players.
The venue hosting the Lexus Wrexham Open is not just a tournament facility — it is one of the largest tennis centres in Great Britain and now home to North Wales's first padel courts. When the Wrexham Open concluded in October 2025, those courts were already buzzing every evening with players discovering the fastest-growing sport in Europe. If you're visiting for the tournament, staying on to play padel is one of the best things you can do in Wrexham.
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3
Covered padel courts · LED-lit for evening play
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1st
In North Wales · opened January 2025
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£2.50
Racket hire per session at reception
What is padel?
Padel is a racket sport that combines elements of tennis and squash — played in doubles on an enclosed court roughly a third the size of a tennis court, with walls that keep the ball in play. The smaller court and lower-compression ball make it far more forgiving for beginners than tennis while remaining genuinely tactical and competitive for experienced players. It is the fastest-growing sport in Europe, already the second most popular sport in Spain, and now arriving in Wrexham — North Wales's first courts just a walk from the tournament arena.
🆕 Never played before?
Wrexham Tennis & Padel Centre runs regular Intro to Padel group sessions — beginner-friendly, equipment provided, and designed for people trying the sport for the first time. Sessions are relaxed, sociable, and great fun. No experience required — most complete beginners can rally within their first 15 minutes on court.
🏆 Already playing?
The three courts are available to book online any time the centre is open via the
ClubSpark booking system. Mixed padel tournaments run regularly —
social tournament formats are a particular favourite. Evenings and weekends book up fast, so plan ahead for peak slots.
📅 Sessions & Coaching
Group sessions run for all ages and abilities throughout the week — adult socials, junior sessions, holiday camps, and one-to-one coaching with the centre's qualified coaches. The full timetable is published on
clubspark.lta.org.uk/WrexhamTennisCentre. All sessions also include Pickleball — another new sport newly arrived at the centre.
🏗️ The Venue
Wrexham Tennis & Padel Centre has grown from 3 indoor courts in 1990 to one of the largest tennis and padel facilities in Great Britain — 12 indoor and outdoor tennis courts, 3 covered padel courts, 4 pickleball courts, and 2 mini courts. All run by a charitable company on behalf of Wrexham County Borough Council. No membership required for any court.
The courts are located just after the mini courts on the booking system. The gate code activates 5 minutes before your booking start time; lights come on automatically at the start of your session. For the Wrexham Open, the padel courts remain available for public booking throughout tournament week — a rare chance to play on the same site as a professional ITF event.
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🛒 Kit Up — Amazon
Shop padel rackets & equipment on Amazon
From beginner padel rackets under £30 to professional carbon fibre bats from HEAD, Babolat, Wilson, and NOX — find everything you need to get on court at Wrexham, with fast UK delivery.
Shop Padel on Amazon ↗
History of Tennis in Wales
Welsh tennis has a longer and richer history than is often acknowledged. The game took root in Wales in the late 19th century — the same decade that the All England Club first held the Championships at Wimbledon — and has been quietly producing talented players and competitive tournaments ever since. The governing body, Tennis Wales, works with the LTA to develop talent from grassroots to professional level across the country.
Wales has produced Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup representatives, hosted ITF events across Cardiff and North Wales, and in recent years has seen a remarkable resurgence in the depth and quality of its professional players — driven in no small part by the success and inspiration of the Wrexham Open itself, which has demonstrated that world-class tennis not only belongs in Wales, but draws global audiences when it arrives there.
Welsh tennis players at Wimbledon
For much of the 21st century, the prospect of a Welsh player in the main draw at Wimbledon felt remote. Rebecca Llewellyn, the former world No. 280 from Wales, featured at the Championships in 2005 — and for the next 20 years, no Welsh player followed her into the singles main draw at SW19.
That changed in 2025. Mimi Xu — born and raised in Swansea, discovered at Swansea Tennis and Squash Club, developed through the LTA National Academy in Loughborough — was awarded a wildcard into the Wimbledon 2025 women's singles main draw, becoming the first Welsh player to feature there since Llewellyn two decades earlier. Xu had spent the 2025 grass court season announcing herself to the world with victories over top-100 players at the Lexus Birmingham, Ilkley, and Nottingham Open events — including a show-court win over world No. 52 Alycia Parks in Birmingham.
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🏴 Mimi Xu · Swansea · Born 2007
Wales's rising tennis star
At just 13, Mimi was the youngest Welsh player to compete at Junior Wimbledon (2021). By 17, she had competed at the Wimbledon main draw, won the Wrexham Open singles and doubles, and trained alongside Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper at the LTA National Tennis Centre in Roehampton. She is rated by Tennis Wales and the LTA as one of the brightest prospects in British women's tennis.
Xu is not alone. Viktor Frydrych, the Welsh male player, received a wildcard for Junior Wimbledon in 2022 alongside Xu. Cardiff-born James Story, Wales's top-ranked male player, holds a career-high ATP ranking of 557. The pipeline is building — and the Wrexham Open is both a product of that momentum and a catalyst for more of it.
2005
Rebecca Llewellyn at Wimbledon
The former world No. 280 became the last Welsh player in the Wimbledon singles main draw for 20 years — a benchmark that defined Welsh tennis's Wimbledon absence until 2025.
2021
Mimi Xu — youngest Welsh player at Junior Wimbledon
Aged just 13, Xu competed at Junior Wimbledon on a wildcard, becoming the youngest Welsh player ever to appear at the Championships. She lost in a tight three-setter to the world No. 6 junior.
2022
Xu and Frydrych at Junior Wimbledon
Both Xu and Viktor Frydrych received wildcards for the Junior Championships, with Xu reaching the second round of the doubles. Xu also won the LTA Junior National Championship that year — twice — at both 18U and 16U level.
2024
Sonay Kartal wins Wrexham Open
British No. 2 Sonay Kartal won the Wrexham Open title in front of a sell-out crowd, beating Heather Watson in an all-British final. Kartal went on to reach the world's top 50.
2025
Mimi Xu — Wimbledon main draw & Wrexham champion
Xu became the first Welsh player in the Wimbledon main draw since 2005, receiving a wildcard after wins over top-100 players in the British grass court season. She then returned to Wales in October to win both the singles and doubles titles at the Wrexham Open — the first professional tournament of her career on home soil.
For the full history of tennis in Wales and to support the game's development, visit Tennis Wales at lta.org.uk. To book courts, find coaching, or play at Wrexham Tennis Centre, visit Wrexham Tennis and Padel Centre.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Lexus Wrexham Open 2026?
The Lexus Wrexham Open 2026 runs from Sunday 18 October to Sunday 25 October 2026 at Wrexham Tennis and Padel Centre, Plas Coch Road, Wrexham LL11 2BW. All matches are played indoors on hard courts.
How do I buy tickets for the Wrexham Open 2026?
What is the prize money at the Wrexham Open?
The Lexus Wrexham Open is an ITF Women's World Tennis Tour W100 event with a total prize fund of $100,000. The winner receives world ranking points on the ITF World Tennis Tour.
Who won the Wrexham Open in 2025?
Mimi Xu — the Welsh teenager from Swansea — won both the singles and doubles titles at the 2025 Lexus Wrexham Open. It was the first professional tournament of her career on Welsh soil, and came during a breakthrough season in which she also became the first Welsh player in the Wimbledon main draw for 20 years.
Is the Wrexham Open on TV or streamed?
Yes — the Lexus Wrexham Open is broadcast live on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport online. In 2025, over 60,000 hours of play were watched via BBC iPlayer, making it the best attended ITF W100 indoor event in the world. Coverage is also available on the LTA website.
Who are the defending champions at Wrexham?
The 2025 singles and doubles champion is Mimi Xu (Wales/GBR). Previous champions include Sonay Kartal (2024, GBR), Viktorija Golubic (2023, Switzerland — Olympic silver medallist and Billie Jean King Cup winner), and Markéta Vondroušová (2022, Czech Republic — who won Wimbledon nine months later).
Where should I stay for the Wrexham Open?
Wrexham city centre is 5 minutes from Wrexham Tennis Centre by car, with Premier Inn, Ramada Plaza, The Lemon Tree, and Wynnstay Arms all within easy reach. Chester (12 miles) offers additional upscale options. See our
Wrexham accommodation guide for all options with prices. Book early — hotels fill up fast during tournament week.
Is there parking at Wrexham Tennis Centre?
Parking guidance and arrangements for tournament week are published on
wrexhamopentennis.com/parking. Wrexham city centre is well-served by public transport from Chester and across North Wales, and the tennis centre is accessible by bus from the city centre.
Who organises the Wrexham Open?
The Lexus Wrexham Open is co-organised by the
LTA (Lawn Tennis Association) and
Tennis Wales, and promoted by
Mosaic Group. It forms part of the LTA's Performance Competitions Calendar and replaced the Lexus W100 Shrewsbury in that calendar from 2025.
Can I play padel at Wrexham Tennis Centre?
Yes — Wrexham Tennis & Padel Centre has
3 covered, LED-lit padel courts, the first in North Wales, opened in January 2025. No membership is required. Courts can be booked online via
clubspark.lta.org.uk/WrexhamTennisCentre. Racket hire costs £2.50 per session from reception. Intro to Padel group sessions run regularly for beginners. The courts are available throughout tournament week including during the Wrexham Open.
