LADIES FIRST! Advance ticket sales for the Hamburg European Open 2024 in the Stadtpark will start on Monday (tomorrow) at 11.00 am local time. Centre Court tickets for the main draw of the WTA 250 tournament are available from 35 euro via the ticket hotline (+49 (0) 1806-991175) and the online ticket shop. You have to be quick! The early bird discount of 15 percent – for all days and categories – is only valid until 30 November.

The WTA Tour players will be making a guest appearance at the temporary tennis stadium in the Stadtpark from 20 to 26 July 2024, making it the ideal place to prepare for the Olympics. The date was confirmed by the Women’s Tennis Association this week. The final is scheduled for Friday, 26 July as the Paris Olympic Games will open on the same day in the evening. “We really wanted to give the players the opportunity to be at the Opening Ceremony. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime moment for many athletes,” says organiser and Tournament Director Sandra Reichel.

She explains the reasons as to why the 2024 tournament will not be staged in the Rothenbaum Stadium but in the “Stadtpark”, Hamburg’s leisure oasis: “It’s a special sporting year, an exceptional year due to the Olympic Games in Paris. For the two Hamburg tournaments for men and women, it means there is only a 12-day window between Wimbledon and the start of the Olympics. As the licence holder of the women’s tournament, we have considered all the options, but in the end, for logistical reasons, it was not possible to play a combined men’s and women’s tournament or back-to-back tournaments at the Rothenbaum venue. It’s why we’re now organising a boutique tournament in the Stadtpark. It’s going to be a unique and historical experience.”

A Centre Court with a capacity of about 2,000 seats will be erected for the tournament in the grounds shared by the THC Horn Hamm and SV St. Georg clubs. The world’s second oldest WTA tournament, whose history dates back to 1896, will therefore offer a particularly exclusive, family atmosphere next summer.

Andrea Petkovic: Our tournament is the perfect preparation for the Olympics

Tournament Ambassador Andrea Petkovic, an Olympic athlete herself in Rio 2016, says: “Our tournament is the perfect preparation for the Olympics. We’ll be playing on clay, like in Paris. The players can also relax here in idyllic surroundings, and Paris is not far away.”

The 2021 Rothenbaum finalist and former world No. 9 emphasizes: “Hamburg is a women’s tennis stronghold. We currently have four Hamburg women in the Top 200, namely Tamara Korpatsch, Eva Lys, this year’s runner-up Noma Noha Akugue and Ella Seidel. A city that has four top-class players is probably unique in the world. It’s why it was clear that we wanted to organise a women’s tournament for these players, but also for Hamburg’s tennis fans, in 2024.”