Few events on the calendar carry Berlin's lineage. The tournament traces its origins to 1896, making it one of the oldest women's competitions in tennis, and it spent most of its modern existence as a clay-court fixture — a Tier I staple known variously as the German Open, the Lufthansa Cup, and the Qatar Telecom German Open before vanishing from the schedule after 2008. Its revival reinvented it entirely: gone is the clay, replaced by grass, repositioning Berlin as a marquee tune-up in the compressed two-week window between Roland-Garros and Wimbledon.
That surface switch is the defining feature of the modern event. As a grass-court 500, Berlin sits alongside Bad Homburg and Eastbourne as the WTA's premier pre-Wimbledon staging grounds — short grass swings where movement, low slices, and serve-plus-one patterns get their only real-match rehearsal of the year. The strength of field separates it: as the highest-tier grass stop outside the majors, Berlin routinely draws the deepest entry list of the lawn season, with top seeds testing form they can't simulate on practice courts.
The recent champion roll reflects that pedigree. Marketa Vondrousova — a former Wimbledon titlist — recovered from a second-set wobble to beat Xinyu Wang 7-6, 4-6, 6-2 in the 2025 final. A year earlier, Jessica Pegula edged Anna Kalinskaya in a three-set, two-tiebreak final, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, while two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova took the 2023 title over Donna Vekic. Grass-court instincts, unsurprisingly, travel well here.
Heading into the 2026 edition, Berlin's standing as the grass season's most prestige-laden 500 is firmly established. The draw plays out across June 15–21, the final tune-up reps before the year's signature fortnight on the lawns of London.