Since 2009 the situation of the Berlin Junior Tournament has changed fundamentally. The German Tennis Federation has awarded its “International Junior Championships” to Berlin. It is a “Grade 1” tournament in the international tournament calendar of the ITF. The LTTC „Rot-Weiss“ has therefore regained a position in the front row of the hosts of international junior tennis events with a tournament which follows in its significance right after the four Grand Slam events (Australian Open, French Open, US Open and Wimbledon). Let’s hope that the “airberlin german juniors” will replace the former “airberlin junior open” for a long time to come.

Concerning the decision to award the “International German Junior Championships” to Berlin and the LTTC “Rot–Weiss”, it should be mentioned that „Rot-Weiss“ only offered to take over the tournament after Essen had resigned as host and the DTB had had no other options to hold the most important German junior tournament.

In addition to the organization of the first “Junior Internationals” since 1980, the club will celebrate two equally important events in 2009: The 50^th anniversary of international junior tennis in Berlin will be celebrated and in the week of the tournament, on July 7^th, the club and its members will commemorate the 100^th birthday of its most successful representative and later chairman and president Gottfried von Cramm.

Bernd Warneck
Tournament Director