ÖTV up-and-coming star Sinja Kraus: "Upgrade for Linz is amazing!"

The upgrade for the Upper Austria Ladies Linz has also brought great joy to Austria's best female tennis players. Sinja Kraus, up-and-coming star of the ÖTV Ladies, talks in an interview about what makes the women's tennis classic in Linz so special. The 21-year-old native of Vienna, who has been a sports soldier in the Austrian Armed Forces since 2020, has an exciting CV. Due to her father's job, she moved to New York for six years as a baby, started playing tennis there and used to speak English better than German. She spent the rest of her childhood and youth in Mainz, Germany. In 2023, she reached her highest career ranking to date - 151st - in May and won the 40,000-dollar ITF tournament in Crete in November. She also talks about this in the interview.

Mrs Kraus, how would you sum up your year 2023?

Sinja Kraus: "It was a year with many ups and downs, but I'm basically satisfied. In February, I parted ways with my longstanding coach Babak Momeni, with whom I had previously worked for 13 years. It was simply time for something new. Since then, I've been training at ProBase in Ludwigshafen, where I also play in the second German Bundesliga. I had my new 'career high' in May. At the end of September, I had to change my coach again internally at ProBase - from Steffen Neutert to Daniel Baumann, because Steffen, the academy manager, has a family and therefore couldn't travel with me as much. But everything worked out very well. I won my biggest title to date in Crete in November. I hope to go even higher next year. In 2024, I want to crack the top 150 and the year after next I want to be in the top 100 so that I can play in the Grand Slam main draw."

The Upper Austria Ladies Linz is coming up at the end of January 2024. As a young player, what do you associate with the tournament?

Kraus: "I used to be part of the Billie Jean King Cup team and saw 'Babsi' Haas and 'Melli' Klaffner raving about the tournament in Linz; Babsi is also from Linz herself. My first personal memory of the tournament is from 2019, when Coco Gauff won. Back then, I was honoured as 'Austria's Young Player of the Year' and got to spend two days walking around behind the scenes and soaking up the atmosphere of a major professional tournament. Boa, that was super exciting! In 2021, I got a wildcard for the main draw myself! The tournament in Linz is amazing, all the players feel really comfortable there."

Barbara Schett is a tournament ambassador in Linz. What connection do you have with her?

Kraus: "'Babsi' is sooo lovely! I had a meet and greet of the WTA mentoring programme with Andrea Petkovic and 'Babsi' Schett at the tournament in Hamburg this summer, which is also organised by Sandra Reichel. Afterwards, 'Babsi' came up to me, asked me how I was doing and gave me her mobile phone number. She was also at the Billie Jean King Cup in Schwechat in November and supported us. When a legend like that is watching, you get a bit nervous."

Now there was the great news of the upgrade to 500 status for the Linz tournament. What do you think?

Kraus: "It's amazing, it's really cool, I'm very excited! The best of the best will be there, it will be a whole new level. Our tournament director Sandra is sure to come up with a firework of new ideas ..."