During the 37th Palermo Ladies Open, the Country Time Club in Palermo hosted the annual global meeting of WTA 125 tournament directors, with WTA Vice President Melissa Pine in attendance — a sign of the category's growing importance in the women's tennis landscape.
The meeting brought together two key figures of Italian tennis: Paolo Lorenzi, tournament director of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, and Sergio Palmieri, former technical director of the Rome event. Both voiced strong support for the rapid expansion of the WTA 125 category in Italy.
"We have gone from three WTA 125 tournaments to eight last year, and this year we will have nine," Lorenzi said. "Having these tournaments is good for Italian tennis. Promoting tennis is our priority."
The WTA 125 series, launched in 2012, sits between the main WTA Tour and the ITF circuit, offering ranking points and prize money that help players bridge the gap to the elite level. In Italy, the expansion has been particularly notable: the country now hosts more WTA 125 events than any other European nation, with tournaments spread across Rome, Florence, Parma, Bari, and Venice, among others.
Sergio Palmieri praised the WTA's strategic shift. "The WTA has made an important step, but it cannot stop here. A good idea can always be improved," he said. "You cannot think you have arrived. It can always be done better."
The meeting also served as a showcase for the Palermo Ladies Open itself, one of Italy's longest-running tennis events now in its 37th edition. Lorenzi noted that "all the best Italian players have come through here — Jasmine Paolini, Flavia Pennetta, Roberta Vinci, Sara Errani, all of them."
The expansion of the WTA 125 calendar comes at a time when Italian women's tennis is enjoying a golden era, with Paolini reaching Grand Slam finals and a deep pool of talent emerging from the federation's development programmes. The nine tournaments scheduled for 2026 will provide more opportunities for Italian players to earn ranking points on home soil, reducing the need to travel abroad for competitive matches.
Sources
- https://www.ubitennis.com/blog/2026/07/25/il-futuro-dei-wta-125-in-ballo-a-palermo-lorenzi-la-promozione-del-tennis-la-nostra-priorita/
