Hamburg Masters: Overview

The third and final annual European ATP Masters Series clay court competition will take place from 10-18 May 2008. Thousands of spectators are expected to converge on Rothenbaum, Hamburg to witness the great Roger Federer in his quest for a fifth victory at the Hamburg Masters.

Only Eddie Dibbs in the 1970s and Andrei Medvedev in the 1990s have come close to matching Federer’s open era record at Rothenbaum to date.

Prior to the Second World War, there were three notable exceptions to Roger’s pursuit of dominance in Hamburg, and they were Englishman Josiah Ritchie, Otto Froitzheim and Gottfried von Cramm, two local crowd favourites.

Together the Germans claimed 13 singles titles and their ascendancy was such, that they played under the flag of the German Empire - during the reign of the Kaiser, the Nazi Swastika and the current German flag.

In this Hamburg Masters overview, it is notable that no Englishman has been successful in Hamburg since Ritchie way back in 1908. It is also remarkable that no American has claimed the title since relative unknown Harold Solomon clinched the final from Guillermo Vilas in 1980.

The doubles competition has been pretty evenly shared by the main contenders over the years. No one doubles tandem has dominated in recent years, and true to form the world’s top ranked doubles pairing of Bob and Mike Bryan walked away victorious in 2007.

The birth of the Hamburg Masters can be traced back to the late 1890s when the city of Hamburg was paralysed by the fifth cholera pandemic. The 8 600 deaths did not deter the city fathers from arranging the very first lawn tennis competition at the site of the current Rothenbaum tennis centre.

The competition’s popularity grew from year to year, and Hamburg even tried to cajole the ‘powers to be’ to allocate a European Grand Slam to Rothenbaum. Sadly, they lost out to the All England Club in Wimbledon and Roland Garros in Paris.

In 2009 the Hamburg Masters will be no more. A decision has been made to downgrade the competition from the ATP Masters Series and replace it with an event in Shanghai, China.

There is every reason to visit the final Masters Series event to be held in Germany. Not only is Hamburg a tried and tested tourist destination but it can be expected that all the top guns will come together to pay their last respects to Rothenbaum and the Deutschen Tennis Bundes.

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