After the Olympics, women play in Amstetten

For Aranxta Rus, there will be no great time pressure to take part in the “Ladies Open” from August 11th to 17th in Amstetten. After winning a confident first round match at the tournament at the Olympic Games in Paris, the 33-year-old Dutchwoman lost to the Chinese Qinwen Zheng 6:2, 6:4 and can already pack her bags.

For the press spokesman for the W75 tournament with prize money of 60,000 US dollars, Matthias Sollböck, this is still good news: “She is not the only Olympic participant who has registered in Amstetten. We ourselves were surprised by the high caliber of applicants at our tournament.” Unfortunately, Julia Grabher’s Olympics was over in the first round. The Vorarlberg native had no chance against Emma Navarro (USA) with 34 unforced errors and set losses of 2:6 and 0:6. A success at the “Ladies Open” in Amstetten would bring the 22-year-old valuable points for the world rankings, just as it would for 18-year-old Tamara Kostic and Austria’s “number 1” Sinja Kraus.

Four wild cards will be issued to the Austrians, and of the 20 fixed starters, the lowest-ranked player is in 231st place in the world rankings. Eight women can play their way into the main competition via the qualification. Aranxta Rus, number 62 in the world rankings, will be playing on the UTC Amstetten clay court, around which the stands for 700 spectators are currently being set up. “We can already promise the fans top-class tennis,” says Sollböck, who is clearly looking forward to the sporting event.

The option of Thomas Dappers, the tournament director of the organizing company TTP Motion GmbH, is to make a women’s tennis tournament in Amstetten a permanent fixture in the summer, and if possible in a higher category. “It is already the largest women’s tennis tournament on clay courts,” says Sollböck.

In addition to the rallies on the center court, the audience is also offered a varied supporting program: the Lower Austrian Tennis Association has organized a “Kids Day”, the state institution “Sportland NÖ”, which, like the city of Amstetten, has subsidized the event, is inviting the general public to a “Day of Exercise”. And after “Game, Set, Match” there will be an “Allwhite Players Party” in the Remise. The qualification day on August 11 is open to the public.