The Dutch Open Tennis Amersfoort (or Dutch Open) originally known as the Netherlands International Championships and Netherland Championships was a
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
tournament played on outdoor
clay court and held in three different locations in The Netherlands between 1898 and 2008. From 1957 to 1973 the tournament consisted of both men's and women's events (singles, doubles, mixed doubles) but from 1975 onward only men's singles and doubles events were held.
History
The inaugural edition began on 23 August 1898 in the Hague the first champion of the event was Irish player
Joshua Pim
Dr Joshua Pim FRCSI (20 May 1869 – 15 April 1942) was a medical doctor and Irish amateur tennis player. He won the Wimbledon men's singles title two years in a row, in 1893 and 1894, and was ranked British number one in both those years. H ...
awarded the title as a result of a
walkover
John_Carpenter_was_disqualified,_prompting_his_teammates_John_Taylor_(athlete).html" ;"title="John_Carpenter_(athlete).html" "title="Athletics at the 1908 Summer Olympics – Men's 400 metres">men's 400 metres running in a walkover. Americ ...
against American player William Howard until 1994 the tournament was played in multiple cities . It was part of the
Grand Prix tennis circuit
The Grand Prix tennis circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players that existed from 1970 to 1989. The Grand Prix and World Championship Tennis (WCT) were the two predecessors to the current tour for male players, the ATP Tour, with t ...
in the 1970s and an
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organ ...
event from its inception in 1990. Amsterdam became the event host in 1995 and in 2002 the tournament moved to
Amersfoort
Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 km from the city of Utrecht and 40 km south east of Amsterdam. As of 1 December 2021, the municipality had a population of 158,531, making it the second- ...
where it was held until its final edition in 2008.
In 2008 the organizers sold the right of organization to the family of
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
n tennis player
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
, and the tournament was moved to
Belgrade, where it became known as the
Serbia Open
The Serbia Open ( sr, Отворено првенство Србије, Otvoreno prvenstvo Srbije) is a professional tennis tournament. It is part of the ATP 250 tournaments. Held in Belgrade, Serbia and played on outdoor clay courts, the event ...
.
Balázs Taróczy
Balázs Taróczy ( hu, Taróczy Balázs; born 9 May 1954) is a retired tennis player from Hungary. The right-hander won 13 singles titles in his career, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in April 1982.
Tennis career
Ta ...
won six editions and is the record title holder.
Past finals
Men's singles
Mens Challenger singles
Mens Challenger doubles
Women's singles
References
External links
Official website
{{ATP World Series tournaments
Grand Prix tennis circuit
Tennis tournaments in the Netherlands
Clay court tennis tournaments
Recurring sporting events established in 1957
Recurring events disestablished in 2008
International sports competitions hosted by the Netherlands
1957 establishments in the Netherlands
2008 disestablishments in the Netherlands
Defunct tennis tournaments in Europe
Annual sporting events in the Netherlands
Defunct sports competitions in the Netherlands
Sports competitions in Amersfoort
Sports competitions in Amsterdam
Sports competitions in Hilversum