Former world number one
Three-time Grand Slam winner is serving in Hamburg
Updated: December 4, 2023, 11:00 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Angelique Kerber (35) won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open.
Photo: Frank Molter / dpa
The women’s tennis tournament taking place in the city park in July will be enhanced by a world-class player.
Hamburg. The Hamburg women’s tennis tournament, which is taking place once this year in the city park on the grounds of THC from Horn and Hamm is being held has a spectacular participant. On Monday the organizers announced that the three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber from July 20th to 26th at the Hamburg European Open 2024 will compete.
“As a child, I often attended the Rothenbaum tournament as a fan. Now I’m looking forward to competing in Hamburg for the first time in my career,” says Kerber excitedly. “The city has a great tennis tradition with many fans – this will be a first for me, which is also connected with a feeling of home. Tennis is currently on the rise again in Germany, and it is all the more important that there is a world-class WTA tournament in the north.”
Angelique Kerber plays the home game at the tennis tournament in Hamburg
“Angie was my absolute dream player for the Hamburg European Open 2024, she is simply Germany’s tennis superstar of the past few years, and the tennis fans love her for her incredible will to fight and her likeable humanity. She is a great role model for everyone,” says tournament director Sandra Reichel about the former world number one, who won the Australia Open and US Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2018.
The Kiel native with Polish roots is playing a home game and a premiere at the same time. Kerber has never played a WTA tournament in northern Germany before. “For me, as a North German, it feels a bit like coming home,” says the left-hander, whose youth club TC Alsterquelle is only around 20 kilometers north of the city park.
Grand Slam winner makes comeback after maternity break
Close to her sporting roots, the silver medalist from Rio de Janeiro in 2016 wants to get in shape for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The clay court surface is ideal for this, as the Olympic tennis competitions at the Stade Roland Garros are also held on this surface.
Kick-off – the Abendblatt newsletter for HSV
Sign up now for the free weekly Matchday newsletter
Kerber is currently preparing for her comeback in Australia after a year and a half of maternity leave. The first serve is planned for the United Cup in Brisbane. Kerber played her last match to date before the birth of daughter Liana in February of this year in Wimbledon in July 2022.
Hamburg quartet in the top 200 in the world
“It is thanks to Sandra Reichel that the women’s tournament remains in Hamburg and even becomes a warm-up for the Olympic Games. I’m excited about two premieres: high-class tennis in the city park and Angelique Kerber’s first appearance in northern Germany. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for her comeback and I’m looking forward to the tournament that my ECE will continue to support next year,” says sports promoter Alexander Otto, whose company ECE supports the Hamburg European Open.
In addition to Kerber, a quartet of local Hamburg heroes also wants to inspire tennis fans in the Hanseatic city: Currently, Tamara Korpatsch (28/world ranking position 83), Eva Lys (21/135), this year’s sensational finalist Noma Noha Akugue (20/177) and Ella Seidel (18/179) four Hamburg women in the top 200 in the world, all of whom want to compete in the city park.
Updated: Mon., December 4, 2023, 11 a.m
More articles from this category can be found here: Sport
2023-12-04 10:00:00
#Hamburg #tennis #tournament #Threetime #Grand #Slam #winner #Angelique #Kerber #serves #city #park
