Internationaux de Strasbourg

The Internationaux de Strasbourg is a professional women's WTA 500 tennis tournament held in France close to the German border. The tournament has been organized in May and is a warm-up event to the French Open which is played one week later.

Category:  500 (WTA)
Draw Size WTA: 32S/16D
Prize Money 2024 Strasbourg Open
Entry List Strasbourg Open
Draw Strasbourg Open
Preview Strasbourg Open
How to watch the Strasbourg Open Tennis TV Guide

The tournament was traditionally held at the Ligue d'Alsace de Tennis, in the Hautepierre district, but since its move in 2011, it has been organized on Tennis Club de Strasbourg courts.

In 2008, the Alsace league announced that it would no longer be organizing the tournament, due to low attendance, a financial deficit and a new request from the WTA to increase the prize money by $50,000 (32,000 euros) from the 2009 edition.

The French Tennis Federation officially became the owner of the Strasbourg Internationals in 2008, and took on the task of organizing the 23rd edition of the tournament. Although its vocation is to organize tennis and major events in France, it does not wish to be the producer of every event in the country. In 2009, after helping to keep the tournament in Strasbourg, the Federation sold the event to a private entrepreneur with close ties to the tennis family.

Denis Naegelen, a former professional tennis player from Alsace and a fervent supporter of French tennis, wanted the tournament to remain in France, and more specifically in Alsace. Several offers from other cities were made to the FFT, but it was the offer from Quarterback, a company founded by Denis Naegelen, that was chosen to keep the tournament in its home town of Strasbourg.

From 2010 onwards, the tournament was redeveloped and made more permanent. The Internationaux de Strasbourg becomes a "committed" tournament and takes on a new positioning. The tournament management strives to make it an eco-responsible event, and to continue defending the place of women in society and in sport, as Billie Jean King (superstar and founder of the WTA) has done in the past. The Strasbourg Open becomes the first all-women's international tennis event.

To modernize the Internationaux de Strasbourg and strengthen the event's international image, the tournament moves to the Tennis Club de Strasbourg courts, at the foot of the European Parliament, in 2011.

Denis Naegelen's expertise in hospitality development aims to make the Internationaux de Strasbourg an attractive tournament, attracting the best players in the world and the best partners, with the aim of creating a virtuous circle. The IS thus becomes the leading public relations event in the Grand Est region.

Since 2010, every effort has been made to reduce the tournament's carbon footprint, eco-responsibility being one of its major areas of development. Thanks to its ecological and sustainable approach, the Strasbourg Open has become France's leading eco-responsible event. The environmental aspect is taken into account at every level of the tournament's organization, and numerous actions are carried out each year to raise visitors' awareness of their carbon footprint: waste and bio-waste management and recycling, reimbursement of tramway tickets to visitors, partnerships with the SNCF to limit CO2 emissions, use of hybrid and electric vehicles, catering based on organic and local produce... In addition, carbon audits have enabled us to measure the tournament's ongoing progress in terms of eco-responsibility.

In February 2018, Denis Naegelen sold the Quarterback company to the Plume Finance group, which thus became the owner of the WTA date, while remaining at the helm of the tournament.

At the end of 2019, following strategic differences of opinion, Denis Naegelen decided to buy back the tournament he had sold the previous year. He then surrounded himself with 3 other partners, Alsatians at heart and passionate about tennis, to bring this project to fruition: Jérôme Fechter (founder of Tennisaddict magazine and Karanta), Pierre-Hugues Herbert (professional tennis player) and Christophe Schalk (chairman of Est Communication SAS and operator of TopMusic radio and MediaRun SAS, an advertising agency).

Four former world No.1s have also added their names to the competition's list of winners: Lindsay Davenport (1995-1996), Steffi Graf (1997), Jennifer Capriati (1999) and Maria Sharapova (2010). With three wins apiece, Silvia Farina (Italy) and Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) hold the record for singles tournament victories, the latter having won them consecutively (between 2001 and 2003).
Three Frenchwomen have also won the tournament, Aravane Rezaï in 2009 against Lucie Hradecká (7/6 6/1), Alizé Cornet in 2013 against Lucie Hradecká (7-6; 6-0) and Caroline Garcia in 2016 against Mirjana Lučić (6-4; 6-1).

Maria Sharapova, superstar of women's tennis and former number 1 with over 36 titles to her name, is invited to the 24th edition of the Internationaux de Strasbourg in 2010. She won the tournament after a hard-fought final against Germany's Kristina Barrois (7-5; 6-1).

2010 Maria Sharapova d. Kristina Barrois 7–5, 6–1
2011 Andrea Petkovic d. Marion Bartoli 6–4, 1–0 ret.
2012 Francesca Schiavone d. Alizé Cornet 6–4, 6–4
2013 Alizé Cornet d. Lucie Hradecká 7–6(7–4), 6–0
2014 Monica Puig d. Sílvia Soler Espinosa 6–4, 6–3
2015 Samantha Stosur d. Kristina Mladenovic 3–6, 6–2, 6–3
2016 Caroline Garcia d. Mirjana Lučić-Baroni 6–4, 6–1
2017 Samantha Stosur (2) d. Daria Gavrilova 5–7, 6–4, 6–3
2018 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova d. Dominika Cibulková 6–7(5–7), 7–6(7–3), 7–6(8–6)
2019 Dayana Yastremska d. Caroline Garcia 6–4, 5–7, 7–6(7–3)
2020 Elina Svitolina d. Elina Rybakina 6–4, 1–6, 6–2
2021 Barbora Krejčíková d. Sorana Cîrstea 6–3, 6–3
2022 Angelique Kerber d. Kaja Juvan 7–6(7–5), 6–7(0–7), 7–6(7–5)