MUNICH, July 14, 2019 (by Dietmar Kaspar)

One more day to go until the start of the Schönbusch Open flowered by 1000gutegruende.de. The ITF World Tennis Tour W25 event will be held at the venue of the TC Schönbusch Aschaffenburg e.V. The 12th edition of the International Bavarian Ladies Open 2019 offers a total prize money of $25,000.

The champion of 2017 and last year’s runner-up, Katharina Hobgarski (WTA No. 247) from Germany, will go for another title bid. After reaching two consecutive finals on the ITF Pro Circuit at the W25 Denain and W60 Versmold tournaments, the 22-year-old Neunkirchen native will give a proof of her current great form.

Of special interest for the home crowd will be the return of wildcard entry Anna-Lena Friedsam (WTA No. 286), who clinched the title in 2012. The 25-year-old from Neuwied, who was previously ranked WTA No. 45, continues here comeback run after being sidelined from the tour due to shoulder injury. She claimed the doubles title of the WTA tournament in Stuttgart alongside her countrywoman Mona Barthel earlier this season and reached the stage of the last 16 in Wimbledon in doubles together with her compatriot Laura Siegemund last week.

Hobgarski and Friedsam will be joined by a big contingent of German players. Katharina Gerlach, Jule Niemeier, Caroline Werner and Romy Koelzer will enter the tournament by direct acceptance. Main draw wildcards have been awarded to the German talents Isabella Pfennig, Lena Ruppert and Alexandra Vecic. Vecic competed at the Wimbledon juniors tournament last week.

The entry list is led by Shilin Xu (WTA No. 215) from China and Quirine Lemoine (WTA No. 244) of France.

The tournament starts on Monday with the qualifying competition. Admission will be free. Daily tickets for the main draw will be offered from €4-8.

For further information, please visit the tournament’s official homepage.