The NEWGIZA International will be a WTA tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

 tournament starting in 2012, organized for women's professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 tennis. It will be part of the 2012 WTA Tour

2012 WTA Tour

The WTA Tour is the elite tour for women's professional tennis organized by the Women's Tennis Association . The 2012 WTA Tour includes the Grand Slam tournaments , the WTA Premier tournaments, the WTA International tournaments, the Summer Olympics, the Fed Cup , the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of...

. It is an International-level tournament with the prize money of US$220,000. It will be played on grass court

Grass court

A grass court is one of the four different types of tennis court. Grass courts are made of rye grass in different compositions depending on the tournament...

s, two weeks prior the Wimbledon Championships.

History

The NEWGIZA International will be the third ever WTA tennis tournament in the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

, after the Dubai Tennis Championships

Dubai Tennis Championships

The Dubai Tennis Championships is a professional tennis tournament owned and organized by Dubai Duty Free and held annually in Dubai, United Arab...

 in Dubai

Dubai

Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

 and the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha

Doha

Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...

. It is also the second ever WTA tournament in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, after the Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem

Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem

The Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem is a women's professional tennis tournament held in Fes, Morocco.  This WTA Tour event is classified as an International tournament and is played on outdoor clay courts. It is the only WTA tournament held in Africa....

 in Fes

Fes

Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....

.