History

The Sparta Prague Tennis Club hosted the 14th edition of the Livesport Prague Open, the third edition to be played on hard courts. Japan’s Nao Hibino was the surprise winner, beating Linda Nosková 6-4 6-1 in the final.

The tournament started with its usual two-round qualification which was dominated by Gabriela Knutson. The American-born Czech tennis player was eliminated in the first round but left it all out on the court against Tereza Martincová, narrowly missing out on a spot in the round of 16.

Defending champion Marie Bouzková was eliminated by Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian in the very first round. Chinese players Zhang Shuai and Zhu Lin also appeared at the tournament, as did French player Alizé Cornet, Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi and Yanina Wickmayer from Belgium.

Two-time Grand Slam winner Barbora Strýcová’s farewell was one of the biggest stories of the tournament. Tereza Martincová made it to the quarterfinals where she lost to eventual winner Nao Hibino, while teenager Linda Nosková made it all the way to the final and was the most successful Czech player of the tournament.

Hibino also dominated the doubles games where she won the title alongside Oksana Kalashnikova. The Japanese-Georgian pair outplayed American-French duo Quinn Gleason & Elixane Lechemia 6-7(7) 7-5 10-3. Czech teenagers fared well in doubles with both Barbora Palicová & Dominika Šalková and Nikola Bartůňková & Tereza Valentová making the semifinals.

The hard courts of the Sparta Prague Tennis Club once again played host to the 13th edition of the Livesport Prague Open. The 2023 edition of the WTA tournament was won by a Czech player, as a brilliant Marie Bouzková defeated Anastasia Potapova 6:0 and 6:3 in the final.

In its post-Wimbledon and pre-US Open time slot, the tournament welcomed a plethora of top-level tennis stars, including top seed Estonian Anett Kontaveit and 2021 Livesport Prague Open winner Barbora Krejčíková to the Czech capital. The entry list also featured Elise Mertens from Belgium, Romanian Sorana Cîrstea and French player Alizé Cornet.

Eighth seed Marie Bouzková fought through strong competition from the very start, continuing a great run of form that saw her make it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon earlier in the year. The ever-smiling Bouzková didn’t drop a single set en route to her first WTA singles title in her career!

Another young Czech player also fared well at the tournament – 18-year-old Linda Nosková. The teenager turned her wild card into a sensational run to the semifinals, missing out on a chance to play for the title to eventual winner Bouzková. Lucie Havlíčková, another wild card participant, made it to the round of 16, while two young Czech players – Barbora Palicová and Dominika Šalková – also made it through a challenging qualifying.

Despite losing in the singles final, Potapova made up for it in the doubles where she won the title alongside Yana Sizikova. The doubles competition also saw one big story unfold, as Andrea Sestini Hlaváčková and long-time doubles partner Lucie Hradecká played their last competitive match together. The popular Czech duo, dubbed H+H by their fans, made it to the quarterfinals where they were eliminated by Miyu Kato and Samantha Murray.

This was the first edition played on hard courts. The tournament took place between 12-18 July under the name Livesport Prague Open and was the twelfth edition of the tournament. The singles final was all-Czech, with Barbora Krejčíková beating Tereza Martincová to the title and the doubles title was also won by Czech natives.

The biggest change for 2021 was the change of surface, with the tournament directors opting for concrete instead of clay. The change was a logical step since the Prague Open now fitted into the WTA calendar after Wimbledon and before the US Open.

Similarly to prior editions, the tournament entry list featured top class players such as Petra Kvitová, Barbora Krejčíková and others. Samantha Stosur, 2011 US Open winner, was awarded a wild card.

Kvitová, one of the biggest favourites to win the tournament, was eliminated in the first round, whereas Krejčíková moved through the rounds without losing a single set and even eliminated her doubles partner Kateřina Siniaková in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal she beat Chinese player Xinyu Wang to earn a place in the final against Tereza Martincová.

Martincová also entered the final with four wins without losing a set, but Krejčíková was clearly the better player of the final, beating Martincová 6:0 and 6:2 to win the title.

The doubles tournament also proved popular among fans, with Czech duo Bouzková, Hradecká beating top seeds Kužmová, Stojanovic 7:6 and 6:4 in the final. Bouzková and Hradecká also made it all the way to the final without losing a single set. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament, which was originally scheduled for April, ended up being played behind closed doors between 10-16 August. Simona Halep won the singles title and the doubles title was won by a Czech duo.

The 11th edition of the Prague Open had to go ahead without any fans in the stands due to COVID-19 restrictions. The entry list featured star players such as ex-World No. 1 and French Open and Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, or Australian Open semifinalist Elise Mertens. The highest seeded Czech player was Barbora Strýcová.

Kristýna Plíšková started the tournament great, beating second seed Petra Martić in the second round, but was eliminated by Mertens in the semifinal. As expected, Romanian Halep booked up the second spot against Mertens in the final.

The final between Halep and Mertens took over an hour and a half, with Halep winning the first set by a sizeable margin. The second was closer, but despite Mertens’ best efforts to complete the comeback, the match ended in favour of the World No. 2.

The doubles final saw Monica Niculescu and Ioana Raluca Olaru come up against Lucie Hradecká and Kristýna Plíšková. The Czech duo fared better throughout the match and beat their Romanian opponents 6:2 and 6:2 to win the doubles title. 

The tenth edition of the Prague Open was played between 29 April and 4 May. Karolína Plíšková was top seed for the tournament, but just like the year before, the World No. 4 didn’t end up competing due to health issues. Jil Teichmann won the singles title, with Anna Kalinskaya and Viktória Kužmová securing the doubles title.

Due to Karolína Plíšková’s unexpected withdrawl, the tenth edition of the Prague Open had to make do without a player from the top 10 of the WTA Ranking. Despite that, the entry list featured interesting players such as World No. 13 Anastasija Sevastova or 2018 Prague Open finalist Mihaela Buzărnescu.

The first round offered unexpected drama when top seed Sevastova was eliminated by Potapova. Two players proved strong from the get-go, Karolína Muchová who entered with a wild card and qualifier Jil Teichmann. The pair would go on to meet in the final.

The final, each player’s first WTA final, ended up lasting nearly three yours but in the end it was Teichmann who emerged victorious, winning 7:6, 3:6 and 6:4 on sets.

The doubles final featured defending champions Květa Peschke, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and pair Anna Kalinskaya and Viktória Kužmová. The defending champions started strongly and won the first set but Kalinskaya and Kužmová completed their comeback by winning the next two sets to win them the doubles crown.

The 2018 Prague Open took place between 30 April and 5 May. Karolína Plíšková was set to be top seed, but an injury prevented her from starting at the tournament. Her position was taken over by Petra Kvitová who went on to win the tournament, confirming her role as favourite. Květa Peschke and Nicole Melichar-Martinez won the doubles title.

The absence of Karolína Plíšková, who was forced to withdraw from the tournament due to a thigh injury, was made up for by the remaining players on the entry list, many of which were elite foreign players.

Barbora Strýcová was eliminated early in the first round by Camila Giorgi, whilst two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová moved on without losing a set. Kristýna Plíšková also started well but a quarterfinal clash with Mihaela Buzărnescu proved too much for the Czech player.

The final put Kvitová against Buzărnescu, with the latter winning the first set. Kvitová, however, managed to keep her composure and turn the match around winning the next two sets to win her first Prague Open title 4:6, 6:2 and 6:3.

The doubles final featured Květa Peschke and Nicole Melichar-Martinez against Mihaela Buzărnescu and Lidziya Marozava. The two-set match ended with Peschke and Melichar-Martinez lifting the silverware, as Buzărnescu failed to win her second final of the tournament. 

The eighth edition of the Prague Open, sponsored by J&T Banka, took place between 1-6 May and saw all seeded players eliminated before the final, with German Mona Barthel fighting her way from qualification all the way to the 2017 Prague Open title. The doubles title was won by Květa Peschke and Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

Ahead of the 2017 season, the WTA reduced their grant for WTA International tournaments from 500,000 USD to 250,000 USD, but despite that, the tournament’s entry list was full of top-quality players from across the globe, with two ex-World No. 1s - Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Janković confirmed for the tournament. Petra Kvitová spearheaded a long list of Czech players signed up for the tournament, but for the first time in three years, neither of them won the tournament.

And what a sensation that was – Mona Barthel fought her way through qualification and earned her place in the main competition. In the first round she faced sixth seed Zhang Shuai, before coming back from three match points in the second round. Her spectacular run ended with her lifting the silverware after an intense final against Kristýna Plíšková.

The Czech player was also an unexpected finalist. In the first round she beat ex-World No. 1 Jelena Janković and then moved directly into the quarterfinal because her opponent, Lucie Šafářová, was forced to withdraw from the match due to illness. There Plíšková faced Beatriz Haddad Maia. In the semifinals Plíšková clashed with rising star Jeļena Ostapenko.

The doubles final also featured a German winner, as 41-year-old Květa Peschke and Anna-Lena Groenefeld beat Lucie Hradecká and Kateřina Siniaková 6:4 and 7:6 on sets. This was the pair’s fourth WTA title playing together.  

The 2016 J&T Banka Prague Open, played between 25-30 April, started with the WTA doubling its tournament grant to 500,000 USD, allowing the organisers to invite two players from the World Ranking Top 10. And it was one of them, Czech player Lucie Šafářová, who won the tournament played in the capital city of her home country and became the first player ever to win the tournament three times. The doubles title was won by Russian-Czech pair Margarita Gasparyan, Andrea Hlaváčková.

Doubling the WTA’s grant allowed the organisers to enter both Kristýna Plíšková and Lucie Šafářová, who were both ranked in the Top 10 in 2016. The previous season’s grant of USD 250,000 wouldn’t have allowed both to play. Despite both being in the Top 10, neither were top seed for the main competition. The highest ranked player was Roberta Vinci, but a last-minute foot injury forced her to withdraw from the tournament. Her spot was taken by two-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Kuznetsova, who had previously been eliminated in the first round of the Prague Open, made it all the way to the semifinal but pain in her abdominal muscles forced her to withdraw as her opponent, fourth seed Samantha Stosur, moved directly onto the final. Stosur was joined in the all-or-nothing match by Lucie Šafářová.

Šafářová, who picked up serious injuries towards the end of 2015, hadn’t won a single singles match since returning to playing in February. This record was broken in the very first round of the Prague Open and her strong and confident performances resulted in her beating Lucie Hradecká, Hsieh Su-wei and Karolína Plíšková in the following rounds to book her place in the final and after a 3:6, 6:1 and 6:4 match, she was crowned 2016 J&T Banka Prague Open champion for the third time.

The sold-out stands of the centre court also had plenty to celebrate in the doubles tournament, as Czech player Andrea Hlaváčková and Margarita Gasparyan beat María Irigoyen and Paula Kania-Choduń 6:4, 6:2 in the doubles final. 

2015 saw the Prague Open being raised from the ITF calendar to the WTA calendar a with that came a sizable bump in grant money and a title sponsor. The tournament was played between 27 April and 2 May under the name J&T Banka Prague Open on the clay courts of the Sparta Prague Tennis Club. Karolína Plíšková confirmed her role as top seed and went on to beat a resilient Lucie Hradecká in the singles final, with Swiss-Czech duo Belinda Bencic, Kateřina Siniaková winning the doubles title.

The ITF tournament with a grant of USD 100,000 turned into a WTA tournament with a grant of USD 250,000. The sizeable bump in grant money attracted noticeably more players to the Czech capital, with all eight seeded players being in the Top 40 of the WTA’s World Ranking. All top Czech players, apart from Petra Kvitová, took part in the tournament with in-form Karolína Plíškova and Lucie Šafářová spearheading the list. The biggest foreign star was 2004 US Open a 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The first WTA rated edition of the Prague Open offered plenty of drama, with over half of all seeded players being eliminated in the first round, including Lucie Šafářová and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Lucie Hradecká, ranked 73^rd on the WTA’s World Ranking, fought her way through qualification into the main competition and made it all the way to the final. There she faced fellow Czech native Karolína Plíšková who ended up winning the dramatic all-or-nothing match 4:6, 7:5 and 6:3 to win her fourth WTA title.

Even before the doubles final started, Czech fans already knew that there would be at least one Czech winner, as both pairs featured once Czech player each. In the end it was Belinda Bencic and Kateřina Siniaková who beat Ukrainian Kateryna Volodko and Eva Hrdinová 6:2, 6:2. For Bencic it was her first doubles WTA title, for Siniaková it was her second.