The Nottingham Open is to be scrapped in favour of a joint men's and women's event in Eastbourne in a bid to claw back some of the £1.5 million lost annually by the grass-court tournaments that form the build-up to Wimbledon.

Announcing the results of a review into the calendar, Roger Draper, the chief executive of the LTA, said that this year's Nottingham Open would be the last and that from 2009, Eastbourne will stage Britain's first joint ATP/WTA tournament. Draper also gave warning that, from 2010, Birmingham would not be guaranteed its WTA event.

The LTA hopes that holding a joint event in Eastbourne, in the week before Wimbledon, will attract the world's best players and help to raise the profile of British competitions, as well as cutting the costs of hosting the tournaments. Draper said: “We are confident that the changes will help to re-energise the calendar and open up the sport to a new audience as well as offering a better experience for existing fans.

“What we couldn't go on was haemorrhaging money. That's money that should be invested into juniors, coaching, clubs, etc. Part of this strategy is obviously to make sure that we break even and actually even make some money that we can invest in British tennis.”

Nottingham has hosted the men's event since 1995, with Greg Rusedski twice winning the title. Last year Jamie Murray won the doubles with Eric Butorac, the American.

Nottingham City Council said in a statement that the LTA's decision was “fundamentally wrong for the future development of tennis in Nottingham and for the wider region and across the country”. The city has been offered a Challenger event, the level below the main tour, and an ITF women's event, set to take place in the first week of June in 2009, but it has not responded to the LTA's proposal.

Last month, the LTA announced that this year's ATP event at Queen's Club, West London, would be the last to be sponsored by Artois.