Austria Open Linz

The Austria Open in Linz is a WTA 500 event played on hard courts in the first half of February, kicking off one month of indoor tennis.

The Austria Open, also called the Upper Austria Ladies Linz or Linz Open, is a women's tennis tournament that was first held back in 1987 and has been held every time since, except for 2022, when the event was not part of the WTA calendar.

It's one of the indoor tournaments, as indoor tennis isn't played just late in the year, but also in February. It's too cold in Europe to play outside, so a few events that are held in Europe, including the Austria Open in Linz, are played indoors.

For the vast majority of its existence, the Austria Open Linz was a tournament of a WTA 250 category, but it attracted a substantial list of players in spite of that, and as a result, the tournament was promoted to a WTA 500 event in 2024.

Like most indoor events, the tournament in Linz is played on hard courts and usually at the TipsArena in Linz, which can fit up to 6,000 people for a tennis match.

Many great players like Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, and Angelique Kerber have won the tournament in the past, and the likes of Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka joined them in the more recent editions.

The tournament is one of very few tennis tournaments held in Austria; another notable event is the Vienna Open, which is a men's ATP 500 tournament held late in the season, meaning the Austrian fans get both ATP and WTA action over the course of a tennis season.