Magnificent premiere as WTA 500 tournament
The WTA 500 premiere of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz was an outstanding event in every respect for tournament director Sandra Reichel. “This was the 33rd edition - and the first tournament as the second-highest WTA category, a so-called 500. I'm overwhelmed by this week, all our expectations were exceeded,” said Sandra Reichel on Sunday before the start of the singles and doubles finals. “We felt the upgrade in all areas. In sporting terms, it was an absolute treat: We saw world-class matches and our two top-seeded players fought their way through to the final. There were numerous dramatic, high-class, heart-stopping matches - such as the quarter-final between crowd favorite Donna Vekic and Ekaterina Alexandrova, which lasted more than three hours, and the fight of our number one, Jelena Ostapenko, in her opening match, which lasted until after midnight. Despite the jet lag in Australia, Jelena gave her all straight away. I'm also extremely happy that tennis legend Ana Ivanovic was our guest of honor at the Linz Design Center. As the second oldest indoor women's tennis tournament in the world, we stand for tradition and progress at the same time, and thanks to the upgrade we will now be able to develop it further in a very attractive way. The plans for 2025 are already underway.”
Sandra Reichel gave us goosebumps on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Design Center. The arena was sold out on all three days with 2,500 spectators. “The run on tickets was enormous,” said the tournament director. The stands were already very full on Tuesday for the matches of three-time Grand Slam tournament winner Angelique Kerber and the only Austrian in the main draw, Sinja Kraus. Overall, we expect around 20 percent more spectators than last year - in other words almost 20,000 tennis fans during the tournament week. The attractiveness of the tournament was also increased once again for the sponsors. “We would like to thank our most important partners from the bottom of our hearts, because without them an event like this would simply be unthinkable: Merci especially to the state of Upper Austria, the city of Linz, LINZ AG, Oberösterreichische Versicherung, ADMIRAL and Lexus,” said Sandra Reichel.
The Design Center, the new venue for the Upper Austria Ladies Linz since last year, has once again proved to be the perfect location for the tournament. We have received nothing but positive feedback from players, sponsors and spectators and continue to rely on this location.
The four-pillar strategy also proves its worth in the second year
Sandra Reichel was also extremely satisfied with the supporting program: “The four-pillar strategy is increasingly proving to be the perfect basis for expanding the tournament into a flagship project for women's sport in Austria,” she emphasized. The Upper Austria Ladies now has strategic pillars: Women, inclusion, kids and sustainability.
For the second time, the FE&MALE SPORTS CONFERENCE set an exclamation mark for women's sport under the motto “Advantage Ladies” and showed ways to achieve more gender equality in sport at the one-day symposium on January 31. The Nations Cup, in which the best wheelchair tennis players from Austria and Germany competed, proved to be an exciting format and fitted in perfectly with the WTA tournament. The junior events, from “Sport and fun with the stars” to the girls' highlight “1,000 tennis rackets for 1,000 girls” on the final Sunday, were once again a great success. We were also once again awarded the Green Event certificate. Together with our partners, we support a wide range of campaigns, which our “Green Court” at the tournament provided information about. One example of this is the “Every ace a honeycomb” initiative: Together with the Upper Austrian Beekeeping Association, honeycombs are given to young beekeepers for every ace they score at the tournament. We also took part in the “100,000 trees for our country” campaign together with our media partner, the “Oberösterreichische Nachrichten” newspaper.
Improved offer for the audience in the public area
The significantly expanded range of food and stalls was also gratefully received by the spectators. The additional offerings from Leberkäs Pepi and Kornspitz/Backaldrin to Stiftsbrauerei Schlägl and Distillerie Affenzeller have made the food and drink offerings even more regional.
“Our premiere as a WTA 500 tournament was a fantastic team effort. I have the best team in the world and I am very grateful for that,” said Sandra Reichel
