Inside Out 03.02.2025

03 February 2025

Inside Out

All good things come in threes!

Ekaterina Alexandrova triumphs

What a dramatic final! Ekaterina Alexandrova is the winner of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz 2025! True to the motto "all good things come in threes", the 30-year-old crowned herself the winner of the women's tennis classic in Linz for the first time in her third appearance in the final in Upper Austria. After a superior start, the match against Dayana Yastremska turned into a real thriller, which Alexandrova finally won 6:2, 3:6 and 7:5 after two hours and 11 minutes.

"It was a really tough match for us on the court today. I love playing here every time and now I've finally managed to win the title for the third time. I'm super happy and this place will always be special and magical for me," said the tournament number four after receiving the Swarovski trophy. It is Alexandrova's fifth WTA tournament win and her biggest title since 2020, when she won in Shenzhen.

For a set and a half, it looked as if the 30-year-old would win the match in quick succession, but Dayana Yastremska showed great fighting spirit and suddenly played like she was unleashed after trailing 2:6, 0:3. To great applause from the crowd, the tournament number five won nine games in a row. The match developed on an equal footing before Alexandrova managed the decisive break at 5:5 in the third set. Yastremska mustered the last of her strength and fended off four match points before she had to concede defeat. "Dayana played incredibly well on the match points and that was hard to accept, but I just had to stay patient and wait for the right moment and that came on the fifth match point," said the winner after the match, sharing her thoughts on the moments just before winning the title.

Although Alexandrova managed far fewer winning shots than her opponent (seven compared to Yastremska's 31), she also only made 15 unforced errors in the entire match over more than two hours, while Yastremska ended up with 41 unforced errors. The Ukrainian took her defeat in her stride: "That's life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But the year has started very well and I hope it continues like this, or even better. I've already played here four times and have always received a warm welcome. I feel right at home here on centre court."

In addition to 500 world ranking points and the prize money of 147,765 dollars, Alexandrova can also look forward to the Swarovski winner's trophy. She has also moved up five places in the world rankings and will therefore be ranked 25th from Monday.

Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani

Double

Two happy winners

The final day of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz was rounded off by the final of the doubles competition. Timea Babos (Hungary) and Luisa Stefani (Brazil) challenged the sisters Nadiia and Lyudmyla Kichenok from Ukraine and the match was in no way inferior to the singles final in terms of excitement. In the end, the fourth seeded pairing of Babos/Stefani showed comeback qualities and won 3:6, 7:5 and 10:4 after 93 minutes. This is the first title they have won together on the tour. "We only got together at the last second and I would say it was very successful for us," laughed Babos after receiving the trophy and also thanked the crowd for their fantastic support. Congratulations!

Quote

Dayana Yastremska

"It was an incredible atmosphere. There were so many Ukrainian fans there. I had so many chances, but that's the way it is in tennis: sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The most important thing for me is that I've found my game this week. Of course, I hope it continues like this and gets even better. I feel right at home on this centre court. It really has been a fantastic week."

Best Of

Upper Austria Day

Happy winner! Ekaterina Alexandrova

Tournament Director Sandra Reichel, Governor Thomas Stelzer, Deputy Mayor of the City of Linz Karin Hörzing, Ekaterina Alexandrova, CEO of LINZ AG, Erich Haider MBA, CEO of Oberösterreichische Versicherung Othmar Nagl, WTA Supervisor Mariana Alves, Tournament Ambassador Barbara Schett and WTA Referee Sabine Schulz

Barbara Schett and Sandra Reichel

Ekaterina Alexandrova

Sandra Reichel, Dayana Yastremska and Barbara Schett

Barbara Schett and Governor Thomas Stelzer

Dayana Yastremska

Managing Director of Upper Austria Tourism Andreas Winkelhofer, Magdalena Rau, star chef Klemens Rau and Governor Thomas Stelzer in the VIP area

Upper Austrian State Sports Director Gerhard Rumetshofer, Sandra Reichel, Deputy Mayor of the City of Linz Karin Hörzing, Times Babos, Luisa Stefani, Nadiia Kichenok, Lyudmyla Kichenok, Barbara Schett, Board Director of LINZ AG Dr Jutta Rinner, Board Director of Oberösterreichische Versicherung Mag. Kathrin Kühtreiber-Leitner, WTA Supervisor Mariana Alves and WTA Referee Sabine Schulz

Pierre Bacchi (referee of the double final) received a Linzer Torte from Jindrak from Sandra Reichel

Great action

Upper Austria blossoms

For every ace beaten, Oberösterreichische Versicherung covers the cost of 1 m² of seed. A total of 308 aces were beaten, but Oberösterreichische Versicherung rounded up its donation to 600. Many thanks for this cool initiative!

Best of

Upper Austria Ladies Linz 2025

Julia Grabher, Dayana Yastremska, Clara Tauson, Dr Jutta Rinner (Director of LINZ AG), Linda Peer (Head of the LINZ AG WASTE Division) at the draw

Tournament ambassador Barbara Schett welcomes Elina Svitolina.

Barbara Schett, Nico Langmann, Mag.a Jasmine Chansri, MBA (Managing Director of Volkshilfe Oberösterreich), Christina Pesendorfer and Sandra Reichel

Maria Sakkari

The joy was great!

A wide variety of panels at the FE&MALE Sports Conference provided valuable insights!

Anastasia Potapova at a press conference

Sinja Kraus

Dayana Yastremska on the road in the Public Village

Eva Lys answers the students' questions.

Luisa Stefani and Timea Babos

20 years

TOURNAMENT AMBASSADOR

Shortly before the final, there was another special moment on the centre court of the Linz Design Center. Barbara Schett was honoured by tournament director Sandra Reichel for her 20th anniversary as tournament ambassador of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. The former number 7, who made her breakthrough in Linz in 1994 with her first semi-final on the WTA Tour, has become an integral part of the tournament. "You are the best tournament ambassador in the world. After your career as a top tennis player, you have managed to make a name for yourself throughout the tennis world as a tennis expert and I am very grateful to you," said Reichel. Schett, who knew nothing about the honour and was visibly surprised, also had a few words afterwards: "Thank you very much for the last 20 years. My journey in Linz started over 30 years ago when I got a wildcard here and I really am an ambassador here with heart and soul." Here's to the next 20 years, "Babsi"!

Quotes

Ekaterina Alexandrova

"I'm just super happy and glad that I finally made it at the third attempt. But at the same time, I'm super exhausted and tired, because it was a very long and difficult match, both physically and mentally. The relief is huge."

"It's very difficult to play against Dayana because she has a lot of power in her strokes and plays extremely hard. You never know whether it's going to be a winner or a mistake. The only thing you can do is concentrate on the things you can influence yourself. So I tried to return every ball and play my chance. I waited patiently for that and tried to accept their winners."

"We'll celebrate a bit, of course. I don't have much time until the next tournament, but I'll take some time to savour it. It was a very special tournament and a special victory for me."

Young talent

1,000 rackets for 1,000 girls

In keeping with the motto "Giving children a chance", the "1,000 rackets for 1,000 girls" campaign took place for the fourth time this year. The campaign, which was launched together with the Austrian Tennis Association (ÖTV) and the Upper Austrian Tennis Association (OÖTV) at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz 2021, is primarily aimed at getting children interested in the sport and giving them a unique opportunity to receive a tennis racket. Dunlop, the official ball partner of the tournament, and LINZ AG are also supporting the campaign.

The organisers will provide a total of 1,000 tennis rackets over several years, which will be "raffled off" to 1,000 girls between the ages of six and ten. This campaign is kindly supported by Linz Airport.

Thank you very much for your support!

34th edition of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz

Guests of honour

Sandra Reichel, Thomas Stelzer (Governor), Maria Sakkari and tournament ambassador Barbara Schett

Karolina Muchova and Markus Achleitner, Provincial Councillor for Economics and Sport

Sandra Reichel, Erich Haider, MBA (CEO of LINZ AG), Barbara Schett

Sandra Reichel, Jürgen Irsigler (Managing Director of ADMIRAL Sportwetten), Barbara Schett

Barbara Schett and Othmar Nagl (General Director of Oberösterreichische Versicherung)

Maria Sakkari and Upper Austrian Sports Director Gerhard Rumetshofer

Deputy Mayor of the City of Linz Karin Hörzing, newly elected Mayor of the City of Linz Dietmar Prammer and Barbara Schett

Director of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labour Andrea Heimberger, President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labour Andreas Stangl, Sandra Reichel and Barbara Schett

newly elected Mayor of the City of Linz Dietmar Prammer, Sandra Reichel and Mayor of the City of Wels, Andreas Rabl

Tournament Director

SANDRA REICHEL

Sandra Reichel has been in charge of Austria's most important women's sporting event for a quarter of a century. Naturally, Upper Austria's Governor Thomas Stelzer offered his congratulations: "Our young tournament director has organised her 25th Upper Austria Ladies Linz as tournament director this year. Sandra, you and your team are doing great things for tennis, Upper Austria and Linz. Many thanks and respect for this achievement." We can only agree with that, dear Sandra! All the best and here's to the next 25 years - your team will always have your back.

Reception

Presidents Cocktail

Upper Austria Ladies Linz, the Upper Austrian Tennis Association and Sportland Oberösterreich invited all presidents of Upper Austrian tennis clubs to the traditional Presidents Cocktail on the final day. The event concluded with a toast to the successful organisation of this year's WTA tournament. See you next year and thank you for being here!

25 years

TRUE SOUL

Some of the staff at Upper Austria Ladies Linz weren't even born when Helga Ebner helped out at the WTA tournament for the very first time - and she still does it every year! Whether behind the scenes or at the information desk, Helga is always there for all staff and spectators with a smile on her face and is a loyal reader of this daily newspaper. "Nothing surprises me anymore," she said to our editorial team a few days ago - perhaps we did surprise you a little. Dear Helga, we are delighted that you are still part of our team and will hopefully be for a long time to come!

Best Of

City of Linz Day

Julia Grabher at the student press conference.

Full house in the congress hall at the students' press conference!

Eva Lys at the round table with journalists

Best Of

LINZ AG DAY

Coin toss in the match between Ekaterina Alexandrova and Petra Martic

Karolina Muchova and Dr Jutta Rinner

Autograph session with Dayana Yastremska

Best Of

ADMIRAL DAY

Jürgen Irsigler (Managing Director ADMIRAL Sportwetten)

Sinja Kraus gave her all in her main draw match on ADMIRAL Day!

ADMIRAL competitions at the Centre Court!

Best Of

Family Day of Oberösterreichische Versicherung AG

Clara Tauson, "Ele", Dayana Yastremska

"Ele" at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz

Ekaterina Alexandrova, "Ele", Karolina Muchova

Sandra Reichel

Tournament summary

The 34th edition of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz came to an end on Sunday with the grand final between Ekaterina Alexandrova and Dayana Yastremska. Beforehand, tournament director Sandra Reichel summed up the second edition of the event as a WTA 500 tournament and looked back on a successful week with a large number of spectators at the Linz Design Centre. Once again, Austria's largest women's tennis tournament has confirmed its status as a flagship event for women's sport in Austria.

Thank you

Thanks to our great partner Funk Fuchs, who supported us again this year in successfully organising the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. We say THANK YOU!

Thank you very much

Strong alone. Unstoppable together.

The entire Upper Austria Ladies Linz 2025 team would like to thank all fans, players, staff, volunteers, sponsors and partners for their fantastic support!

See you next year!