One of the oldest tennis tournaments in women’s professional tennis is the German Open. It began in 1896 and was played on clay courts in Hamburg. The tournament had a successful run till 2008.
Between 2009 to 2020, the tournament was taken off the circuit. In 2021, it made its comeback as a grass court event called the Berlin Ladies Open and was scheduled to be held before Wimbledon. Moreover, it was categorised as a WTA 500 event on its return to Berlin.
The tournament features singles and doubles events played as singles elimination knockout. The draw size of the singles event is 28, featuring six players from the qualifying draw (out of 24), and four wild card entrants. The doubles draw features sixteen doubles teams.
All matches are played in the best of three sets format. A player wins a set when they win six games with a difference of two. Should a set score go to six games all, then a tiebreak is enforced. The player who wins seven points in the tiebreak with a difference of two points is the winner of the set. In doubles, a third set is played as a tiebreak. This tiebreak requires the doubles team to win ten points with a difference of two points to win the set, and subsequently the match.
Tha singles champion and the doubles champion get 500 ranking points whereas the runner-ups get 325 points. As of 2024, the tournament has a prize money of €802,237. The champion of the singles event gets €123,480, whereas the winning pair of the doubles event gets €41,210.
Steffi Graf is the most successful player at the event, winning a record nine singles titles. In doubles, Natasha Zvereva’s tally of four titles is the most by any player.
