The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) announced its decision about the future of the sport in Eastbourne on Wednesday after months of speculation.

Roger Draper, chief executive of the LTA, said, "The big news for Eastbourne is that the week before Wimbledon not only are we going to be running a WTA women's event but we are also going to have a combined men's event linked to it with an ATP tour event - so world class tennis on both the men's side and the women's side.

"Obviously it's a great opportunity in the lead up to Wimbledon to grow the event, not just from a player's view but a fan's perspective as well."

Extra seats for court number one and court number two will be put in place to cope with the extra demand that is envisaged.

But although an array of top women players will continue compete at the Eastbourne event, the joint tournament is unlikely to see equally stellar names on the men's side.

The men's tournament will instead provide an arena for rising talent from across the globe competing in a 32-player draw.

"It's not going to be the Federers, Nadals or Djokovics because they tend to use the week before Wimbledon practising, playing exhibition events and so on," he said.

"But we do have a history of using that week as the launch pad for world class tennis.

"So last year Tsonga, for example, who was a finalist at the Australian Open earlier in the year, launched his career at Surbiton and then Queens and so on."

The tournament is expected to draw players ranked between 20 and 100 in the world, said Mr Draper, "and it's still going to be fantastic."

He added, "And who knows, if some of the players fare badly at Queen's Club in the first two weeks of June, quite a lot of them, if they want more event practice, will sign up for the (Eastbourne) event.

"So we may well get a few surprises in terms of the top names as well."

The women's event would stay at a 28-player draw with the possibility of evening sessions being introduced.

Changes to improve the facilities at Devonshire Park will be devised by the LTA alongside Eastbourne Borough Council and the regional development agency.

These will include temporary stands on court one for 1,500 spectators – nearly doubling the 800 seat capacity.

Prize money for both events will top £515,000.

"We've always had world class women play down at Eastbourne and this gives us a great opportunity to learn from this year's event so we make sure that in 2009 we hit the ground running," Mr Draper added.

He said that Eastbourne's closer proximity to London had been a major factor with both the players and sponsors.

The changes have come about following LTA losses on tennis events around the country totalling £1.5million.

Mr Draper said the LTA was aiming to sign up an 'umbrella sponsor' to support all major British tennis events, including Eastbourne.

Also see: Tennis week saved