Anke Huber is looking forward to being able to present the spectators in the Porsche Arena crowd with three additional world stars, namely Marketa Vondrousova, Ons Jabeur and Jelena Ostapenko. “Ons is one of the nicest players on the Tour. The fans love her,” says the Operating Tournament Director of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. “Jelena has started the year off well and is always good for a surprise. The fact that Marketa, the Wimbledon champion will be back in Stuttgart is an accolade for our tournament.”
The triumph at Wimbledon was a turning point in Marketa Vondrousova’s career. Currently the world No. 8, the 24-year-old Czech had only won one previous WTA tournament – in Biel in 2017. It was therefore all the more surprising that she reached the final of the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. Ahead of her campaign at the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, she was also only considered to be an outsider by the London bookmakers. She duly played the best tennis of her life to secure the world’s most coveted trophy by beating Ons Jabeur in the final.
Marketa Vondrousova and Ons Jabeur have already faced each other at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix – in the first round in 2022. The match was won by the 29-year-old Tunisian who reached the semifinal one year later in the Porsche Arena. The current world no. 6 was unfortunately forced to retire with a calf injury after only three games against the eventual tournament winner Iga Swiatek. Afterwards to the sound of encouraging applause, she promised. “I’ll be back to try and finish off what I’ve started.”
Ons Jabeur is making a whole continent proud
Ons Jabeur has won a total of five career WTA titles, including the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid in 2022. Last year, the right-hander won in Ningbo and Charleston. With her successful and attractive game, she has put the African continent on the world tennis map. As the first player from the region to achieve the feat, she won her first WTA title in Birmingham in June 2021, and then broke into the world’s Top 10 in October. She was also the first African-Arabian player to reach a Grand Slam final. Standing in the Wimbledon and US Open finals in 2022, she was only a whisker away from claiming her first Grand Slam. In the same year, she was world ranked a career-high No. 2. Her third Grand Slam final followed in Wimbledon in 2023.
The Tunisian appeared at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in both 2022 and 2023. She is already looking forward to the fantastic atmosphere in the Porsche Arena, and the chance of testing a Porsche sports car during the tournament week. “I love the autobahn, the A 8,” she said when bidding farewell with a wry smile on her face. “And Porsche is the perfect car for it.”
Great start to the season for Jelena Ostapenko
Jelena Ostapenko has already won eight career WTA titles. After winning in Adelaide and Linz, the 26-year-old Latvian has not only had a great start to the season, she has also returned to the world Top 10 where she is currently ranked No. 9. The biggest success of her career to date came in Paris in 2017 when, unseeded, she won the French Open two days after her 20th birthday. It was her maiden WTA title.
Her best performance at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix came in 2018 when reaching the quarterfinals where she lost to the eventual tournament winner Karolina Pliskova. She made her first appearance in the Porsche Arena one year earlier when she secured a main draw berth via qualifying. She failed to advance past the first round, but then six weeks later she amazed the tennis world by claiming her first Grand Slam.
With Jelena Ostapenko and Marketa Vondrousova now in the line-up, the number of Grand Slam winners at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix has increased to six. Title-holder Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka as well as the Porsche Brand Ambassadors Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu had already confirmed their participation.
Exceptional live atmosphere
As one of the most prestigious indoor tournaments on the WTA Tour, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix does not only present the crème del la crème of world tennis. Its visitors also enjoy an exceptional live atmosphere in Stuttgart’s so-called “Hallenduo” comprising of the Porsche Arena and the Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle. An attractive programme of side events for all ages with a colourful mixture of sport and entertainment turns the long-established tournament into an unforgettable experience for the whole family.
Ticket sales
Tickets for the 47th Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in the Porsche Arena from 13 to 21 April 2024 are available via the official www.porsche-tennis.com tournament website or at Easy Ticket Service – in Internet at www.easyticket.de or by calling +49 711 / 2 55 55 55.
Porsche in Tennis
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is the flagship of Porsche’s worldwide involvement in women’s tennis. First played in Filderstadt in 1978, the long-standing Stuttgart tournament has been held in the city’s Porsche Arena since 2006. It stands for tradition and innovation, as does the Porsche brand. As the most loyal sponsor of women’s international tennis, Porsche has accompanied the WTA’s oldest indoor event right from the start. Together with its subsidiaries, the sports car manufacturer was last year the automotive partner of the WTA tournaments in Linz (Austria), Bad Homburg (Germany), Bastad (Sweden), Cincinnati (USA) and Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu give Porsche a face in tennis as Brand Ambassadors.Jule Niemeier, Maria Sakkari, Karolina Muchova, Anett Kontaveit and Iga Swiatek are additionally “Friends of the Brand” in their home countries. As a premium partner of the “Deutsche Tennis Bund” (DTB – German Tennis Association), the company has been supporting Porsche Team Germany in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2012 and fosters up-and-coming players in the Porsche Talent Team and the Porsche Junior Team.
.jpg/jcr:content/Angelique%20Kerber%20at%20the%20Porsche%20Tennis%20Grand%20Prix%20(2).jpg)