Proximus Diamond Games

Proximus Diamond Games
WTA Tour
Location	Antwerp  Belgium
Venue	Sportpaleis Merksem
Category	Tier II
Surface	Hard / Indoors
Draw	28M/32Q/16D
Prize Money	$600,000
Website	Sport.be

The Proximus Diamond Games was a professional tennis tournament held in Antwerp, Belgium. Held since 2002, the tournament takes place in the Sportpaleis, and was played 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 both lost its status as part of the WTA tour, and lost a large amount of its target audience. However, an exhibition tournament was held on 2009-12-09 as the Thomas Cook Diamond Games, which Clijsters ironically played at, with a second edition planned for 2010.

The Diamond Games prides itself on offering a particularly distinctive trophy to any player that can win the singles three times in five years. In 2007, upon completing this feat, Amélie Mauresmo won a golden racquet decorated with diamonds. The racquet's value was an estimated 1 million euros. The others to come close to winning the racquet were Venus Williams in 2006; but she pulled out two days before the event, citing a persistent wrist injury, and Justine Henin who retired on in May 2008.

A new trophy was unveiled in 2008, which featured a golden racquet and a ball, and was decorated with 2008 diamonds. The conditions for winning it were the same. Its value is an estimated 1.5 million euros.

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	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	Kim Clijsters	3–6, 6–3, 6–3
2007	Amélie Mauresmo	Kim Clijsters	6–4, 7–6(4)
2008	Justine Henin	Karin Knapp	6–3, 6–3
2009-	Exhibition

Doubles

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score
↓  Tier II tournament  ↓
2002	Magdalena Maleeva Patty Schnyder	Nathalie Dechy Meilen Tu	6–3, 6–7(3), 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-	Exhibition

External links

• Official website (English) (French) (Dutch)