Diamond Games

Diamond Games
Tournament information
Founded	2002–2009, 2015
Location	Antwerp Belgium
Venue	Sportpaleis Merksem
Category	Tier II (2002–2009) WTA Premier (2015)
Surface	Hard (indoors)
Draw	28S/32Q/16D
Prize money	$731,000
Website	Sport.be

The Diamond Games (sponsored in 2015 as BNP Paribas Fortis Diamond Games and formerly known as Proximus Diamond Games, GDF-Suez Diamond Games and Thomas Cook Diamond Games) was a professional women's tennis tournament organised in Antwerp, Belgium. The tournament took place in the Sportpaleis, at the beginning of February.

In 2009, with the restructuring of the WTA tour and the retirement of both Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, the tournament lost its status of being a WTA tour tournament and evolved into an annual exhibition tennis event before returning to the WTA calendar in 2015.^[1] Later this year, however, WTA announced that in 2016, The Diamond Games would be replaced on the WTA Calendar with a new tournament in St. Petersburg, Russia.^[2]

The Diamond Games offers a trophy to any player who wins the singles three times in five years. In 2007 Amélie Mauresmo won a golden racquet decorated with diamonds.^[3] A new trophy was unveiled in 2008, which featured a golden racquet and a ball, and was decorated with 2008 diamonds.^[4]

Past finals

Singles

Year	Champion	Runner-up	Score
↓  Tier II tournament  ↓
2002	Venus Williams	Justine Henin	6–3, 5–7, 6–3
2003	Venus Williams (2)	Kim Clijsters	6–2, 6–4
2004	Kim Clijsters	Silvia Farina Elia	6–3, 6–0
2005	Amélie Mauresmo	Venus Williams	4–6, 7–5, 6–4
2006	Amélie Mauresmo (2)	Kim Clijsters	3–6, 6–3, 6–3
2007	Amélie Mauresmo (3)	Kim Clijsters	6–4, 7–6^(7–4)
2008	Justine Henin	Karin Knapp	6–3, 6–3
2009–14	Only exhibition tournaments held
↓  Premier tournament  ↓
2015	Andrea Petkovic	Carla Suárez Navarro	Walkover

Doubles

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score
↓  Tier II tournament  ↓
2002	Magdalena Maleeva Patty Schnyder	Nathalie Dechy Meilen Tu	6–3, 6–7^(3–7), 6–3
2003	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	Nathalie Dechy Émilie Loit	6–2, 6–0
2004	Cara Black Els Callens	Myriam Casanova Eleni Daniilidou	6–2, 6–1
2005	Cara Black Els Callens	Anabel Medina Dinara Safina	3–6, 6–4, 6–4
2006	Dinara Safina Katarina Srebotnik	Stéphanie Foretz Michaëlla Krajicek	6–1, 6–1
2007	Cara Black Liezel Huber	Elena Likhovtseva Elena Vesnina	7–5, 4–6, 6–1
2008	Cara Black Liezel Huber	Květa Peschke Ai Sugiyama	6–1, 6–3
2009–14	Only exhibition tournaments held
↓  Premier tournament  ↓
2015	Anabel Medina Garrigues Arantxa Parra Santonja	An-Sophie Mestach Alison Van Uytvanck	6–4, 3–6, [10–5]

References

1. "WTA Event In Antwerp Will Be Replaced With New Tournament In St. Petersburg". Vavel. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
2. "WTA Heads to St. Petersburg in 2016". Women's Tennis Association (WTA). Retrieved 2015-09-26.
3. "Amelie's diamond day". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2015-09-26.
4. "The custom tennis racquet money can't buy". GiveMeSport. Retrieved 2015-09-26.

External links

• Official website