The tennis facility at Hamburg’s Rothenbaum and the men’s tournament there were showing their age. Organizer Michael Stich, the city, association and club could no longer get along. In 2019, Wels native Sandra Reichel, tournament director of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, took over the reins in Hamburg.
The tournament is now gaining in appeal again, said Hamburg’s State Councilor for Sport, Christoph Holstein, when visiting a delegation from Upper Austria: “We need events like this.” With the “Active City” program, Hamburg wants to promote sport and exercise. The stadium was modernized by ten million euros in 2020 (financed primarily by entrepreneur Alexander Otto). This year, for the first time since 1978, men and women will play in the same week (today men’s quarters and women’s semi-finals), since Reichel bought a women’s tournament license. Its further upgrading is a goal, according to Reichel. Some Upper Austrians work in Hamburg. “The two teams are growing together, as an Upper Austrian you get along well here,” says Reichel. In Hamburg she is also in talks to sign players for Linz. The date for the tournament is to be moved from autumn to February 2023 – i.e. at the beginning of the season as it was last in 1998. That is already the case in the unofficial WTA calendar, says Reichel. The final okay should follow.
Based in Linz, the Reichel family is “ambassadors for the sporting region of Upper Austria,” says Provincial Councilor Markus Achleitner. The sporting, economic and tourist cooperation with Hamburg is to be expanded further.
Source: Nachrichten
