The Ostrava Open was an ATP and WTA tennis tournament played on indoor courts in Ostrava, Czech Republic.
2022 Date: | 3 - 9 October |
Category: | WTA 500 |
Surface: | Hard |
Location: | Ostrava, Czech Republic |
Venue: | CEZ Arena |
Players: | 28 players (2022 Ostrava Open WTA Entry List) |
ATP Prize Money: | $757,900 |
ATP Points: | 470 for champion |
Draw: | 2022 Ostrava Open WTA Draw |
The Ostrava Open, also known as the AGEL Open for sponsorship reasons, was a tennis tournament played at the CEZ Arena in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Between 1994 and 1998, the city hosted an ATP tournament, and in 1999, and then between 2020 and 2022, a WTA tournament was held in Ostrava.
During the 2020 WTA season, multiple tennis tournaments had to be canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result, many tournaments with temporary licenses were added to the schedule, and one of them was the Ostrava Open.
During the three years when the tournament operated, it managed to bring some of the best players in the world, as each one of the finals played in Ostrava was a proper blockbuster between two players who have made it to the Top 10 in their careers.
In 2020, Aryna Sabalenka bested Victoria Azarenka in an all-Belarusian final match in Ostrava. Year after that, former world no. 2, Anett Kontaveit, proved to be better than Maria Sakkari, but nothing beat the 2022 final.
Ostrava is close to the Polish border, and when home player Barbora Krejcikova and Polish No. 1 Iga Swiatek, the crowd in Ostrava went wild. It was even labeled as the best WTA final match of the 2022 season, as the Czech player beat the world no. 1 in a three-hour and 16-minute marathon 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3.
Despite getting some of the best players in the world to Ostrava and hosting one of the best final matches ever in a WTA 500 category, the WTA announced in 2023 that the Ostrava Open would not return to the calendar.