- Tournament director Reichel: "It was a forceful act"
The Hamburg Ladies Open 2024 are now history since Saturday evening. The trophy ceremony following the doubles event on the Centre Court at the Rothenbaum marked the end of the event born out of necessity - and tournament director Sandra Reichel was relieved. "It was a major effort," she had summed up the past weeks before the final day. At the same time, the Austrian looked ahead: "The wish is there to play here again." However, final discussions with key partners such as the city and the German Tennis Federation (DTB) must be held.
The date is already set. From July 13 to 20, 2025, a high-caliber women's tournament will take place in the Hanseatic city again, and this time as a WTA 250 and not in the scaled-down 125 variant as this year.
Tournament to be enhanced
In fact, Reichel even has plans to upgrade it to a 500 status. She wants to discuss this during the US Open in New York with the WTA. The leap this would be is evident just by looking at the prize money. The recently concluded 125 tournament was endowed with 100,000 euros, while a 500 status would likely amount to around 950,000 US dollars (circa 870,000 euros).
But that's future music. First, Reichel is just happy that the tournament took place in 2024 at all, after it was already announced in late May that there was no venue. Despite only around 8,000 spectators over the entire seven days, she made it clear: "It was the right thing to do. I would do it again immediately. Because it's an important message that we've brought women's tennis back to Hamburg and that we're staying here."
This year, Reichel focused on Hamburg players, led by Tamara Korpatsch, Ella Seidel, Eva Lys, and last year's finalist Noma Noha Akugue. Although the final was between the later victorious Anna Bondar from Hungary and the defending Dutch champion Arantxa Rus, the four Hanseatic players also played on the sand court in the big arena during the week. Despite the organizational effort of using the stadium, Reichel emphasized: "It was a matter of respect that the players deserved to play on the Centre Court."
The triumphant athletes were honored during the award ceremony following the conclusion of the tournaments. The successful hosting of the Hamburg Ladies Open in 2024, even after initial doubts, was celebrated at the ceremony.
