Eastbourne Open 2025 preview: 'That sucks' - stars react to popular tournament being downgraded

The event, which kicks off at Devonshire Park on Monday, is a popular event for many tennis players with it being held a week before Wimbledon is played.

It is also a great opportunity for British players to play in front of a home crowd, and it does not come more home than this for Kartal, who currently resides in Brighton.

The 23-year-old has had a great first half to the season, already hitting her end-of-year target ranking, with this tournament another chance to push it even higher ahead of Wimbledon.

Kartal said: “I think everything is heading in the right direction, my goal for the start of the year was to end the year in the top 50.

“Having done that in the first half of the year, I feel like I am making big strides on the court, getting better in my game, better at handling the bigger games on the bigger stages.”

This is Kartal’s first time playing in Eastbourne, somewhere where she has many special memories.

She said: “I’ve got lots of memories. I remember coming here when I was six, I was running around the courts trying to get as many autographs as I could.

“I used to come here on school trips as well.”

She did the draw for the tournament but could not avoid drawing herself with a tough opponent, with her facing off against Jelena Ostapenko, who is ranked 19th in the world.

“I even did the draw as well,” she said.

“I know it’s her first event on grass this year, anything can happen. I am feeling confident, I had a great win in Queen's first round.

“Everyone in this draw is an incredible tennis player, so maybe on paper I could of [got an easier draw] but at the end of the day you’ve just got to play the person that’s the other side of the net.”

“I’m excited, it will definitely be a good battle and a good test for me.”

This is the first year in which this competition will be a 250 tournament, offering out fewer ranking points than previous years and making the tournament not as special as before.

It is a bizarre decision to many people, but Kartal believes that it has not changed the event in a negative way.

“I think it’s still a fantastic event. It’s nice we had Queens as well which is the higher one.

“I don’t know what it was like last year, but I’ve got nothing bad to say about the tournament.”

This view is not shared by the world number 16 Kasatkina, who did not see any reason for it to be downgraded.

On the downgrade, the previous champion said: “That sucks. I don’t understand why this decision was made. I think it is one of the oldest tournaments we’ve got on tour.

“As I remember it is always a 500, it’s a very nice tournament and I didn’t see the reason to downgrade it to a 250. There is always quite a good field of players which come here, and it is convenient to go from here to London after.”

Despite this, she is still motivated to go out there and retain the title she won a year ago.

She said: “Whatever you feel before the tournament does not give you anything. You can feel good and still not feel 100% for the match and the opposite.

“It’s important that I am practising good, spend a lot of time on court hitting balls, working out in the gym.

“Especially on grass it is not easy with the conditions here with the wind and the unpredictable conditions, can get a bit tricky. I will just go out there and try and do my best.”

Her opening game will be a tricky one against Lulu Sun, who reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year.