Number one seed Jelena Ostapenko lives up to her role as favourite at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz. After losing to Coco Gauff in the final in 2019, she now takes the title at the women's tennis classic in Linz.
Yelena Ostapenko
She had her eye on it since her arrival. On Sunday afternoon, Jelena Ostapenko was then able to lift the winner's trophy, which was adorned with 8,100 gold crystals, in the Design Centre in Linz, which was sold out with 2,500 spectators. It took the Latvian 71 minutes for her commanding 6:2, 6:3 victory over Ekaterina Alexandrova to win the first edition of the tournament as a WTA 500 event. The Russian, who calls Linz her home tournament, also lost her second final in the Upper Austrian capital.
Jelena Ostapenko only made it into the main draw thanks to a last-minute wild card and justified her nomination with a remarkable comeback win against Clara Tauson and then three extremely dominant performances. The 2017 French Open winner picked up in the final where she had left off in the semi-final against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. She dominated with a strong serve and uncompromising groundstrokes, letting Alexandrova run and was the boss on court at every stage. However, her opponent did not play a bad match. Alexandrova tried out a lot and even made fewer mistakes than Ostapenko, against whom she lost in the semi-finals in Adelaide a few weeks ago. As then, Ostapenko was a class above this time too. The world number twelve hit a total of 28 winners, kept pushing herself and was simply unstoppable. After converting the match point, she was beaming all over her face and couldn't wait to finally receive the glittering trophy.
Ostapenko said after her victory: "After I won my first match here, I had the feeling that I could win the tournament. I felt better from match to match. I was in the final here just over three years ago, but now I'm holding the trophy in my hand and I think it's more beautiful than it was back then anyway."
Ekaterina Alexandrova
It was Ostapenko's second title win this year. She had already won in Adelaide in preparation for the Australian Open. This is the second time since 2017 that she has won two tournaments in one season. For Ekaterina Alexandrova, there is at least a small consolation: thanks to her place in the final, she returns to the world's top 20. Ostapenko improves to eleventh place in the WTA rankings and everyone in the stands was in agreement: this final was the crowning glory of a memorable week at the tournament.
Ostapenko
vs.
Alexandrova
Sara Errani, Sandra Reichel and Jasmine Paolini
It was a worthy conclusion to the Upper Austria Ladies Linz: In a thrilling doubles final, Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani from Italy narrowly defeated the combination of Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) and Ellen Perez (Australia) 7:5, 4:6, 10:7.
Congratulations!
Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez
For every ace beaten at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, Oberösterreichische Versicherung covers the cost of a honeycomb for a young beekeeper. A total of 346 aces were beaten, but Oberösterreichische Versicherung rounded up its donation to 700. Many thanks for this cool initiative!
In keeping with the motto "Giving children a chance", the "1,000 rackets for 1,000 girls" campaign took place for the third 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, is supporting this year
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.
The Rotary Club of Upper Austria also presented a cheque at the event.
Thank you very much for your support!
An absolute legend of the WTA Tour was a guest at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz at the weekend!
Ana Ivanovic, two-time winner of the WTA tournament in Linz, visited the tournament and took part in various activities, such as the "1,000 tennis rackets for 1,000 girls" campaign. There was also a photo shoot with tournament ambassador Barbara Schett at the Linz Castle Museum. Great that you were here, dear Ana!
The Upper Austria Ladies Linz, the Upper Austrian Tennis Association and the Sportland Oberösterreich invited all the presidents of the 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!
That was catchy! In the VIP area of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz, young talent Tobias Hildebrand created the right atmosphere this year. When he's not at the tournament, he enchants many people with his music, especially on social media.
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!
The premiere edition of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz as a WTA 500 tournament was an outstanding event in every respect for tournament director Sandra Reichel. "This was the 33rd edition - and the first tournament as an event in the second-highest WTA category. I am overwhelmed by this week, all our expectations were exceeded," summarised Sandra Reichel on the final Sunday.
The entire Upper Austria Ladies Linz 2024 team would like to thank all fans, players, staff, volunteers, sponsors and partners for their fantastic support!
See you next year!
Maximilianstrasse 30
4600 Wels
Austria
Phone: +43 7242 63 747
e-mail: office@rbgroup.at
Contact
Impress
Privacy policy
Maximilianstrasse 30
4600 Wels
Austria
Contact
Impress
Privacy policy