Altenkirchen tennis tournament: Belgian Minnen is a top seeded player

Message from 02/14/2022

It’s done: The preparatory work is done, many players have arrived, the draw for the 32-man main draw has taken place. The “Burg-Wächter Ladies Open”, the tennis world rankings tournament in Altenkirchen, which is endowed with 60,000 dollars, really starts on Tuesday, February 15th.

Altenkirchen. Let’s go: The ninth edition of the tennis world ranking tournament for women in Altenkirchen can start. The “spectatorless” competition, which was again due to the corona pandemic, is no longer called “AK ladies open”, but “Burg-Wächter Ladies Open”, which after the qualification with the first games of the 32-man main field on Tuesday, February 15th , starts and will choose the winner on Sunday, February 20th. $60,000 in prize money will be awarded. That’s $35,000 more than in previous years – thanks to the ITF (World Tennis Federation), which is contributing this amount out of its own pocket. Number one is Greet Minnen from Belgium, currently 91st in the WTA world rankings. Viktoriya Tomova (Bulgaria/106), Julie Niemeier (Dortmund/115) and Anna-Lena Friedsam (Neuwied/128) follow. The Dutchman Aranxta Rus, currently number 68 in the world, had initially entered but withdrew their entry on Sunday (February 13). In doubles, too, victory, world ranking list counters and a significantly smaller fee are played. Like seven times before, Patrick Mackenstein (Aachen) is the supervisor (referee). Organizers are the Christian non-profit sports organization SRS and the sports and tennis school Lob.

Das beste Table

“It’s not a tournament anymore, it’s an event. The tableau is the best in the whole nine years”, tournament director Razvan Mihai classified the gallop of many talented young players on Monday afternoon (February 14). the sports hotel with the location, the Burg-Wächter-Matchpoint, on the Glockenspitze. With regard to the new title sponsor, he added: “Personally, I and the SRS board are enthusiastic about the new partnership.” Christopher Lüling, CFO of the company Burg-Wächter based in Wetter (Ruhr), reported a “very, very long association with SRS and the hotel”. A $60,000 tournament is crazy, it’s good advertising for tennis and for German youth. “It quickly became clear to us that we would like to act as a namesake,” said Lüling.

With all my heart

Daniel Mannweiler, who took over the overall management of the SRS from Hans-Günter Schmidts and is on board in this function for the first time at the Open, knew that “all of us who are involved here go into it with all our hearts. This also applies to the tournament director, without whose work we could not play through such a tournament”. For SRS, the motto is “We love to serve”, which has a double meaning. “We love this sport and we love to serve,” he explained, “basically we want to help athletes get to the next level.” Tour (Professional)” for two days (“Then I have to go back because I have a young family”), a picture of the competition, which has been praised over the green clover since the beginning. “Such tournaments on a 60,000 basis are extremely important so that players can make the leap onto the WTA or ATP tour,” he pointed out an important building block of the international tennis universe, to which Altenkirchen also makes a contribution performs. Looking back, he thanked Mihai and his team for allowing the tournament to be played last year against the backdrop of the corona pandemic. On the other hand, there were many rejections.

No successful title defense yet

A look back: It is typical for Altenkirchen that favorites often fall by the wayside early on. And: A successful title defense has never been achieved. In the victory of the Danish Clara Tauson after 1:46 hours with 3: 6, 6: 1, 6: 3 a year ago against Simona Waltert, a qualifier from Switzerland, Eva Lys (Hamburg), the winner of 2020, provided a classic example of the door-to-door rule for defending champions with her loss in the first round , when everything was still almost normal, Corona had not quite wrapped its tentacles all around the globe, with a deserved 6: 2, 6: 4 over the number one seeded Bibiane Schoofs (Netherlands) claimed. Shuyue Ma gave with 6: 4, 5: 7, 7: 5 in 2019 Maryna Zanevska (Belgium) was left behind. The Chinese had nobody on the bill. In 2018 the British Harriet Dart defeated Karolina Muchova (Czech Republic) in the final with 7: 6 (7 :5) and 6:2 through, 2017 Schoofs with 7:5, 7:5 against n her countrywoman Quirine Lemoine. The best of 2016 was Ysaline Bonaventure (Belgium), who overcame Rus 6-3, 6-3. The first German success was due to Carina Witthöft from Hamburg. She was ahead in 2015 with the 6: 3, 6: 4 against Andrea Lottner (Düsseldorf) and was considered a great talent at the time after Kerber, Görges and Co. The success of Irina Shymanovich (formerly Belarus, now Belarus) at the premiere in 2014 (15,000 euros in prize money left) was a minor sensation. Reka-Luca Jani (Hungary) was at a disadvantage with 1: 6, 6: 7 (3: 7). (vh)

All games in live stream

The schedule (all games to be streamed live via the ITF homepage) – Tuesday 15 February to Friday 18 February. 10.30 a.m. main draw and around 7 p.m. night session with the “match of the day”; Saturday, February 19, around 1 p.m. Singles semi-finals, doubles semi-finals; Sunday, February 20, around 12 noon, doubles final, followed by singles final.

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