The WTA International tournament will take place at Lielupe Tennis Center in the Jūrmala resort town from July 22 to 28.
It was originally planned that the tournament would be held in Moscow, but now the WTA has decided to move it to Jūrmala, although the tournament will still be organized by Russian sports marketing agency ONE SGM.
"We knew it could happen. The organizers had visited Latvia to see if Lielupe Tennis Center met the requirements. It seems that they liked it here," said Lejnieks.
"This will be a top quality event with a huge budget. It is amazing that something like that will happen in Jūrmala. True, we are not the license holders, but this tournament really puts us on the global tennis map," stressed Lejnieks.
In the recent years, Latvia's fabulous women's tennis players Anastasija Sevastova (WTA No. 11) and Aļona Ostapenko (WTA No. 22) have put the country on the map for tennis buffs.