Why the Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters occupies a small but important place in women's tennis

The former Wimbledon semi-finalist meets the five-time Grand Slam champion at the net at the end of a hard-fought final. The capacity crowd cheers for both players as Kirsten Flipkens cruises to the title thanks to some excellent clutch volleys in a 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 tiebreak win over the legendary Martina Hingis. Flipkens joins four-time major winner Kim Clijsters and former world number 2 Anett Kontaveit in lifting the trophy once coveted by Grand Slam champions such as Martina Navratilova, Mary Pierce and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.

Welcome to the Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters, where some of the best women's players in the world play an exhibition event more serious than most in one of the world's smallest countries. At this year's tournament, which concluded last Sunday, Hingis (now 44) and Flipkens (38) competed alongside 2008 French Open champion and former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic (46); 2015 US Open champion Flavia Pennetta (42); former world number 4 Dominika Cibulkova (35); one-time world number 9 Andrea Petkovic (37); ex-world number 27 Laura Robson (30) and Magdalena Rybarikova (36), once the number 17 in the world.

The Six Kings Slam in Saudi Arabia, which took place simultaneously with the Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters, made for some more headlines, with $6 million (4.6 million) in prize money for eventual winner Jannik Sinner and a star-studded line-up -up that generated an event that didn't play like an exhibition. Almost 5,000 kilometers away from Riyadh, the same thing happened in a duchy, with the tournament broadcast on Sky Sports in Germany.

These aren't the invites to Grand Slam tournaments like the French Open and Wimbledon, where the players move at a pretty leisurely pace and trick shot kings like Mansour Bahrami headline, extending points with whimsy and good-natured sadism rather than trying win them directly. In Luxembourg, former world number 5 Daniela Hantuchova is being appointed by tournament organizers to go on reconnaissance missions to events, including the Grand Slam invitationals, to see who can still play really good tennis.

“I know what the players were like on the field, so it's about who can add the most value, both on and off the field, and help create the best atmosphere,” she says. All the players featured this year were invited to take part, and it was Ivanovic's first event since retiring eight years ago and she was watched by her husband Bastian Schweinsteiger, the former Germany and Bayern Munich midfielder. They still had to meet certain criteria: the event recruits a minimum of four former top-10 players, while the other four are ranked no lower than No. 50.

Ana Ivanovic reached a total of three Grand Slam finals and won one.

Robson, Britain's former Wimbledon junior champion whose career was cut short by injuries, played her first singles match in six years in a 6-3, 6-2 defeat to Hingis.

They want people to try to have a good match, Robson said in a telephone interview immediately after being cut by her opponent. Everyone was on the practice courts getting ready for their matches. I may not have been able to do as much as I would have liked, but I tried to practice as much as I could.

Everyone is trying to play well instead of being a fun and giggling exhibition.

This is a real tournament, said Hingis, who spoke The Athletics last week on a day off while sightseeing with her five-year-old daughter Lia. Luxembourg's medieval castles proved to be a big hit. You have to go in and be prepared. This is the only time I play singles.

Hingis doesn't recall ever playing competitive singles other than this event since he retired in 2007.

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Luxembourg does not have a huge tennis heritage, which is not surprising for a country of around 675,000 inhabitants that places it just below the Solomon Islands in the world rankings. The best-known players are Mandy Minella, who reached career No. 66 and has played this event before, and Gilles Muller, a former Wimbledon and US Open quarterfinalist.

The Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters originated as an exhibition event in 1991 and became an exhibition again three years ago. But from 1996 to 2021 it was an official tournament at the WTA 250 level, with an end-of-season slot in which big-name players were invited to take wildcards with the chance to accumulate points before the WTA Tour Finals. Clijsters won the title five times, including the first WTA title of her career as a 16-year-old in 1999, while other former winners include Ivanovic, Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati.

The tournament was then known for its quirkiness and intimate location, with only a few courts and a roof so low that the ball often hit it during play.

Today, the Masters version is played at an even smaller venue, the Coque, with a capacity of about 1,500 people. It was full for most of the tournament, which was played from Thursday, October 17 until the final the following Sunday.

Ultimate winner Kirsten Flipkens.

Like the concurrent Six Kings Slam, the event is intended to generate interest in tourism and investment for the host country without glossing over a heavily criticized human rights record. The State of Luxembourg is the main backer, providing prize money of 5,000 (4,165) for the defeated quarter-finalists, 10,000 (8,330) for the semi-finalists, 20,000 (16,661) for the runners-up and 50,000 (41,653) for the champion. as the money needed to organize the event.

The tournament organiser, International Womens Tennis Promotion (IWTP), says it also aims to promote international women's tennis in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, but the group is not doing anything outside of this event. It is also difficult to quantify how much hosting the original event and this new Masters version has inspired generations of players in Luxembourg. The country's tennis federation did not respond to a request for participation figures.

There is a lot of interest in tennis among young people in Luxembourg, tournament director Danielle Maas said in an interview last week. During the event we give tennis clinics and there are many students present who can meet and talk to the players.

The tournament's other major sponsor is sports and entertainment agency Octagon, which represents three of the players involved Hingis, Ivanovic and Cibulkova, as well as ambassador and recruiter Hantuchova. It benefits from promoting its own players, who also receive appearance fees that reach six figures (in euros) for the biggest names. Players are also chosen if they can help increase the commercial value of the event, for example by taking it to valuable television or sponsorship markets, with Octagon taking care of the recruitment side.

When Maas, a tennis fanatic who ran the event from its inception, expanded the 250 tournament to its current version, Octagon helped introduce Hantuchova as an ambassador. Danielle saw an opportunity to offer something no one had offered, a legends event exclusively for the women, Alastair Garland, senior vice president of Octagon Tennis, said in a telephone interview this week.

Hantuchova added: It's a great opportunity for young girls to come and watch, and we talk about how tennis has helped in our lives. We also have a conversation where we invite famous people from Luxembourg, where we discuss how to move from one career to another.

Robson adds to this sentiment and touches on the other part of this event that makes it more than an exhibition: This is all we have for singles for veterans, it's unique.

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Until 2021, the ATP Champions Tour was a popular outlet for men's tennis veterans for more than 25 years. Like the tournament in Luxembourg, entry criteria were used to ensure a certain quality of tennis: only former world number 1s, Grand Slam finalists and members of winning Davis Cup teams could participate, either from the age of 35 or after two years of retirement. . The final edition of the season finale at the Royal Albert Hall in central London in 2021 was followed by one season of organized competition in 2022, which then gave way to a smaller legends event in Delray Beach, Florida.

The WTA Tour hosted legendary doubles events at the WTA Tour Finals between 2014 and 2018, but has no plans for further competitions. It has promoted the Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters but is not officially affiliated with the tournament.

Fans filled the 1,500-capacity arena to watch some of the best women's tennis players in recent memory.

This is an important part of the picture because retired women's tennis players, unlike the men, have never had a veterans tour. We always looked enviously at the ATP guys who had a senior tour, Hantuchova said. We would have loved to compete this way, but that's why this event is so expensive.

The lack of veteran events is notable, as retired tennis stars increasingly look to off-court media and ambassadorial opportunities before playing more tennis in new contexts. The buzz in Luxembourg and the Sky Sports deal in Germany suggest a desire to see the likes of Hingis and Ivanovic again, and Octagon's Garland is certainly convinced by these figures.

“I think there's a huge opportunity,” he said. There are Grand Slam winners and incredible athletes, some of whom are now mothers and great representatives of the sport, who are underutilized.

Other tennis figures seem to agree.

ATP Tour sources, who wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships, said this The Athletics that the previously popular Champions Tour is currently under review with the idea of ​​revamping it, and Laver Cup chairman Tony Godsick has argued that unless legends of the sport become a coach or a pundit, it is easy for them to become invisible. At the Laver Cup, by being a team captain or attending, fans can get reacquainted with some of these players; in Luxembourg, by seeing them pick up a racket again.

Tennis in Luxembourg also offers new fans a way to see the evolution of the sport up close. It's a little slower and can feel a little dated, but seeing Flipkens regularly attacking the net, or the variety and feel of Hingis, is a way to understand how much tennis can change in a relatively short time. And for all this seriousness at the heart of the event, the fact that it is still an exhibition still offers something in itself.

Besides being able to compete again, one of the things players love most about the event is the chance to catch up and hang out.

“I just practiced on center court and it's like a living room, everyone is just chatting,” Hantuchova said.

Normally everyone just wants to go back and talk to their teams, but we were just all talking about life and playing some tennis in between. It's really cool. It's like catching up with old friends, but instead of meeting over a cup of coffee, we do it with a racket in our hands.

(Photos: Roland Miny / Luxembourg Ladies Tennis Masters)