She is more inextricably linked to the Upper Austria Ladies Linz than any other player. Ever since Austria's most successful female tennis player in history, Barbara Schett-Eagle, known to everyone as „Babsi“, celebrated her debut at the women's tennis tournament in Linz in 1994, nothing has been possible without her. On her debut, she marched through to the semi-finals at her home tournament and, despite the enthusiastic support of the fans, was beaten by the eventual tournament winner Sabine Appelmans. Five years later, she achieved the highest world ranking of her career at number seven and made it to the quarter-finals at the WTA Finals for the only time. In the same year, she also reached the quarter-finals of the US Open. She reached the doubles semi-finals once again in Linz in 2004 and then celebrated an emotional farewell.

But she never really said goodbye to her home tournament. She has remained involved in tennis as an expert for Eurosport and ServusTV and has now been accompanying „her tournament“ in Linz for 21 years as a tournament ambassador, promoting Austria's biggest women's sporting event worldwide - you could hardly wish for a better ambassador than Babsi.

And how would she describe the Upper Austria Ladies Linz in three words? „Heart and soul, passion and top international women's tennis.“ 

There is no better way to put it in a nutshell.