GENEVA, October 30, 2014

According to an article in the Swiss newspaper “Tribune de Geneva”, the license of the ATP 250 tournament in Düsseldorf will be moved to Geneva. When taking control of the Geneva Open in 2012, tournament director Daniel Perroud had always said that his ambition has been to review a large tennis tournament in Suisse Romande in the medium term. Daniel Perroud could soon see his wish fulfilled. While the ATP Challenger tournament is in full swing at the Centre Sportif de la Queue d’Arve at the end of October, discussions between the organizers in Geneva and those of the Düsseldorf Open have arguably experienced a significant improvement. The newspaper’s headline states that the transfer to Geneva will be made to 99 per Cent.

The second edition of the Düsseldorf Open in 2014, whose license is owned by former world number five Rainer Schüttler and Ion Tiriac, took place in the week before the French Open but the organizers were in search for a title sponsor for the next years. Yet the search has remained unsuccessful. On Friday, tournament director Dietloff von Arnim confirmed that the Düsseldorf Open will not be carried out in 2015 and thanked all partners and helpers for their support in more than three decades of top-tennis at the Rochusclub.

Previously played outdoors on clay, since 2011 the Geneva Open has been played indoors on Green Set courts. The ATP awarded the Jim McManus Challenger Award to the Swiss tournament in 2013. This award honors the best Challenger event in the world.

“Most likely, the tournament will take place on clay on the Road to Roland Garros 2015. We should be able to count on two members of the world top 10 and two in the top 20,” Perroud, who is expected to remain in the tournament’s Steering Committee in Geneva, said. “Given the evident desire of our city establishing this 250 event, I cannot see the ATP rejecting our request,” Daniel Perroud added. Alongside Basel and Gstaad, it would be the third ATP World Tour event held in Switzerland.