BERLIN, September 18, 2019
The city of Berlin will return to the international tennis calendar for the first time since 2008. The capital of Germany will host the inaugural Grass Court Championships Berlin to be held on June 13 to 21 at the LTTC Rot-Weiß. This was announced by the organizers e-motion sports on Wednesday.
The tournament will be part of the WTA Premier Series and receives the licence from Birmingham. The venue will feature three grass courts, which will be built in co-operation with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (AELTC). The biggest court is the Steffi Graf Stadium with a capacity of 7,000 seats.
Birmingham will remain on the calendar and will replace the WTA Mallorca Open, while the Balearic Island will host an ATP 250 grass-court event next year. The German city of Bad Homburg will also be added to the WTA calendar hosting a grass-court event alongside Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon.
🌱🎾Rasentennis-Nation Deutschland! @Wimbledon bestätig, dass es ab 2020 2 neue deutsche @WTA-Turniere auf Gras geben wird – in Berlin und Bad Homburg!🌱🎾 Details hier: https://t.co/QwlvPcmTu7
So sieht die neue Rasensaison ab 2020 aus: 👇👇#Lawntennis #GermanGrass pic.twitter.com/2Vn1roeeQ2— tennis MAGAZIN (@tennismagazin) September 18, 2019
The Austrian company e-motion sports will still organize the tournaments in Mallorca as well as the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.
“With three tournaments running within three weeks, we are facing a major challenge, but we are looking forward to it,” Edwin Weindorf, CEO of e-motion sports, stated in a press release.
“Berlin was a highly regarded tournament venue from 1979 to 2008 when it hosted the German Open. Thanks to the support of the WTA, Wimbledon and the Octagon agency, it has become possible to return to the capital city with Germany’s most prestigious women’s tennis event. It is also a special honor that Chancellor Angela Merkel has taken over the patronage for the tournament in Berlin. My thanks also go to the Berlin Senate and the members of the LTTC Rot-Weiß Berlin as well as sports director Markus Zoecke, who support this project to the best of their ability.”
2008 Wimbledon champion Angelique Kerber and Germany’s world-class player Julia Görges as well as other international top-women are expected to come to Berlin next year.
