The Austrian Open was a

WTA Tour The WTA Tour (also known as the Hologic WTA Tour for sponsorship reasons) is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for women and organized by the Women's Tennis Association. The second-tier tour is the WTA 125 series, and third-tier is the ITF Wome ...

affiliated women's clay court tennis tournament founded in 1896 as the Championships of Austria a combined men's and women's tournament. Following World War II it was known as the Austrian International Championships up to the

open era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today a ...

. The women's tournament was discontinued in 2015, the men's ATP event the

Austrian Open Kitzbühel The Austrian Open Kitzbühel (known as the Generali Open Kitzbühel and originally known as the Austrian International Championships (1894–1968)) is an annual tennis tournament held in Kitzbühel, Austria. The event was part of the ATP World ...

is still being held.

History

The men's tournament the Championships of Austria was established in 1894, with the women's event following two years later in 1896. It was originally held in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

in what was then (

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

) up until World War One; then in Vienna from 1921 to 1951, '54 '55 '57 '64, then moved to Salzburg in '1952, then held in Portschach in 1954 '58 '60 '63? '66 '68, it was held for year

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

in 1956, then in Kitzbühel in '59 '61 '65 . Following World War II the event was known as the. In the Open Era, seven locations hosted the event: Pörtschach in 1968 and 1999;

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a town rights, medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol (state), Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbüh ...

from 1969 to 1983 and from 1990 to 1993;

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in 1979 and from 2001 to 2004;

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

from 1985 to 1986; Maria Lankowitz from 1994 to 1998, Klagenfurt in 2000 and

Bad Gastein Bad Gastein ( is a spa town in the St. Johann im Pongau District. Picturesquely situated in a high valley of the Hohe Tauern mountain range, it is known for the Gastein waterfall and a variety of grand hotel buildings. Geography Bad Gastein i ...

from 2007 to 2015 where it took place as Nürnberger Gastein Ladies. The tournament which is held on outdoor

clay court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis is played. Clay courts are built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and other construction aggregate, aggregate, with a thin layer of fine clay particles ...

s was not contested in 1984, 1987 to 1989 and from 2005 to 2006. Four Austrians won the singles event:

Judith Wiesner Judith Wiesner (née Pölzl; born 2 March 1966) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. During her career, she won five top-level singles titles and three tour doubles titles. Her career high rankings were world No. 12 in singles (in 1 ...

in 1995,

Barbara Paulus Barbara Paulus (born 1 September 1970) is a former professional tennis player from Austria. She began playing on the WTA Tour in 1986 and retired in 2001. During her career, she won a total of seven WTA tournaments (six singles titles, one double ...

in 1996,

Barbara Schett Barbara Schett Eagle (; born 10 March 1976) is an Austrian former professional tennis player, who reached her highest singles ranking of world No. 7 in September 1999. Between 1993 and 2004 she played in 48 matches for the Austria Fed Cup team, ...

in 1997 and 1999 and Yvonne Meusberger in 2013. Two Austrians were victorious in the doubles event:

Petra Huber Petra Huber (born 15 February 1966) is a former professional tennis player from Austria. Biography Junior career Before turning professional, Huber competed with success on the junior circuit. In 1982 she partnered with Judith Polz to make the g ...

in 1986 partnering West German

Petra Keppeler Petra Feucht (born 22 March 1965), born Petra Keppeler, is a former professional tennis player from Germany. Biography Tennis career Born in Augsburg, Keppeler played professionally in the 1980s. Keppeler featured in a total of nine Federation ...

Patricia Wartusch Patricia Wartusch (born 5 August 1978) is a former professional tennis player from Austria. She reached her career-high singles ranking of world No. 65 in 2000. She won in her career two singles and six doubles titles on the WTA Tour. She won ...

in 2002 partnering Hungarian

Petra Mandula Petra Mandula (; born 17 January 1978) is a Hungarian former professional tennis player, who represented her native country at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney; in singles, she was eliminated in the first round by fourth seed Conchita Martíne ...

along with

Sandra Klemenschits Sandra Klemenschits (born 13 November 1982) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. She won one doubles title on the WTA Tour (with Andreja Klepač) and 40 doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. Klemenschits announced that the 2016 Gener ...

in 2013, partnering Slovenian

Andreja Klepač Andreja Klepač (born 13 March 1986) is a Slovenian former tennis player. On 14 July 2008, she reached her career-high singles rankings of world No. 99. On 11 April 2022, she peaked at No. 11 in the WTA doubles rankings. She qualified also with ...

. Romanian

Virginia Ruzici Virginia Ruzici (born 31 January 1955) is a Romanian former professional tennis player. She won the 1978 French Open – Women's singles, 1978 French Open singles championship. Career Ruzici became a professional tennis player in 1975. One of h ...

holds the Open Era record for singles titles, with three victories in 1980, 1982 and 1985. ''Nürnberger Gastein Ladies'' was a tennis tournament held in Bad Gastein, Austria between 2007 and 2015. It was an International event on the WTA Tour with total prize-money of $250,000 and was played on red clay. In 2016, a new addition to the 2016 calendar was announced on March 11, the Ladies Championship Gstaad, Switzerland, which replaced the Nurnberger Gastein Ladies International tournament, held in Bad Gastein since 2007. In 2020, amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the WTA announced the ''Carinthian Ladies Open'', a WTA 125K tournament, to be held in Austria on clay courts. The tournament will be held during the same week as the 2020 US Open, and will allow players affected by the cancellation of US Open

qualifying Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

to compete.WTA Tour adds two $125K series events in Prague & Portschach to provisional calendar
/ref> However, the tournament was cancelled just days after the announcement due to the pandemic.

Finals

Singles

(incomplete list)

Doubles

References

External links