WTA Berlin Open 2026: Schedule, Draw, Prize Money & Stars

The grass-court tennis season is officially heating up. With the first grass tournaments of the year wrapping up this weekend at the Queen’s Club in London and ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, the women’s professional tour is moving to Germany.

Tennis fans are getting ready for the 2026 Vanda Pharmaceuticals Berlin Tennis Open. This event is a WTA 500 tournament, meaning it is one of the premier stops on the Women’s Tennis Association tour. It brings together the absolute best female players in the world as they practice, fight for ranking points, and prepare for the ultimate grass-court prize: Wimbledon.

This year’s event is packed with history, incredible star power, and a massive financial boost. From the legendary return of Serena Williams to a field loaded with top 10 superstars, Berlin is the center of the tennis world this week.

Here is your complete guide to everything you need to know about the 2026 Berlin Open.

A Rich History: From Clay to Grass

The Berlin Open is not a new tournament. In fact, it is the 99th edition of the WTA German Open, making it one of the oldest and most respected tournaments in Europe. However, its modern identity is fairly new.

For many decades, this tournament was played on slow red clay courts. It was a major warm-up event for the French Open. That changed up until 2021 when the tournament made a massive switch. It transformed into a fast, green grass-court event and became a WTA 500 tournament.

Today, Berlin hosts its sixth edition as a grass-court tournament. The venue is the beautiful Rot-Weiß Tennis Club, which is home to the famous Steffi Graf Stadium. Named after Germany’s greatest tennis legend, the stadium features an open-air setting with 4,500 seats. The tournament organizers use an innovative “Berlin meets London” theme. This concept brings the classic British Wimbledon style, complete with live music and beautiful grass, straight into the heart of the German capital.

To give fans even more action, the Berlin Open runs concurrently—meaning at the exact same time—with the WTA 250 Nottingham Open in Great Britain. Together, these tournaments kick off the critical race to Wimbledon.

When are the Matches? The Round-by-Round Schedule

The action in Berlin spans over a week of intense competition. While the top players are already practicing on the courts, the actual schedule is divided cleanly by rounds.

Before the main tournament begins, singles players who did not get automatic entry have to fight through the qualifying rounds. These took place over the weekend of June 13–14. The winners of these matches earned a spot in the main bracket.

The official main-draw play starts on Monday, June 15. Both the singles and doubles finals will take place on Sunday, June 21. The singles final will kick off at 12:00 p.m. local time in Berlin (which is 11:00 a.m. BST in London and 6:00 a.m. EST in New York), with the doubles championship match happening immediately after.

Here is the daily breakdown for both brackets so you do not miss a single match:

Singles Tournament Dates

First Round: Monday, June 15 and Tuesday, June 16
Second Round: Wednesday, June 17 and Thursday, June 18
Quarterfinals: Friday, June 19
Semifinals: Saturday, June 20
The Final: Sunday, June 21

Doubles Tournament Dates

First Round: Monday, June 15 through Wednesday, June 17
Quarterfinals: Thursday, June 18 and Friday, June 19
Semifinals: Saturday, June 20
The Final: Sunday, June 21

How Big are the Draws?

The Berlin Tennis Open values quality over quantity. Instead of massive draws that take two weeks to complete, this tournament features small, highly competitive brackets.

The Singles Draw features exactly 28 players.
The Doubles Draw features exactly 16 teams.

Because the singles draw is limited to 28 players, the rules state that the top four seeded players receive a “bye” in the first round. A bye means these top four stars do not have to play a match in the first round. They automatically advance directly into the second round, giving them a small advantage and extra time to rest.

Out of the 28 spots in the singles tournament:

17 players entered directly based on their high world rankings.
6 players earned their spots by winning the weekend qualifying tournament.
4 players received “wild cards” from the tournament organizers.
1 player entered through a special exemption.

The four confirmed wild cards this year are Paula Badosa, Alexandra Eala, Eva Lys, and Nikola Bartunkova. Wild cards are special invitations given to popular players, local crowd favorites, or rising stars who did not qualify automatically based on their current ranking.

Click HERE to view the draws.

The Stars of Berlin: Who is Playing?

The 2026 field in Berlin is absolutely spectacular. The tournament features eight players from the world’s top 10 rankings.

The field is led by the World No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka. Sabalenka is famous for her incredibly powerful serves and groundstrokes, which make her a nightmare to play on fast grass courts. Berlin will mark the official start of her grass-court season.

Joining her are American superstars Coco Gauff (World No. 7) and Jessica Pegula (World No. 4). Pegula has fantastic memories in Berlin, having won the entire tournament in 2024. Another major favorite is Elena Rybakina (World No. 2), a former Wimbledon champion whose booming serve is perfectly built for grass. Rybakina is flying into Germany directly from competing at the HSBC Championships in London.

Other top 10 threats in the draw include Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina and Czech star Karolina Muchova. Fans should also keep an eye on big-hitting American Madison Keys and Liudmila Samsonova, who won the Berlin title back in 2021.

Notable Withdrawals

Tennis is a grueling sport, and the quick switch from clay to grass often causes injuries. A few big names unfortunately had to pull out of the 2026 tournament right before it started:

Mirra Andreeva: The French Open champion had to withdraw due to a sudden change in her tournament schedule. She was replaced by Diana Shnaider.
Belinda Bencic: Forced to withdraw with a right ankle injury. She was replaced by Elise Mertens.
Victoria Mboko: Suffered a left knee injury and was replaced by Anastasia Potapova.
Amanda Anisimova & Sorana Cirstea: Both withdrew just a few days before the tournament due to physical issues.

Serena Williams and the Doubles Storyline

While the singles draw is full of superstars, the doubles draw is stealing headlines around the world. The legendary Serena Williams is continuing her highly anticipated tennis comeback in 2026!

After initially stepping away from tennis after the 2022 US Open, the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion shocked the sports world by returning to the tour this month. Last week, she played doubles at the Queen’s Club alongside young Canadian Victoria Mboko. They won their opening match in style, but unfortunately, Mboko suffered a knee injury later in the week, forcing the team to stop.

Williams did not let that slow down her comeback. For the Berlin Open, she has teamed up with a brand-new partner: world singles No. 10, Karolina Muchova.

The wildcard duo faces a massive test right out of the gate. In the very first round, Williams and Muchova will play against the tough team of Giuliana Olmos and Erin Routliffe. Interestingly, this is the second week in a row Serena will play against Routliffe, whom she defeated last week in London. If Serena and Muchova can win their first two matches, they are on a direct collision course to meet the top-tier American duo of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the semifinals. It is a dream scenario for tennis fans.

Who are the Defending Champions?

To understand the magic of Berlin, you only have to look at last year’s tournament. The defending 2025 singles champion is Marketa Vondrousova of Czechia.

Vondrousova’s run to the title in 2025 was a historic fairytale. After winning Wimbledon in 2023, she suffered terrible shoulder injuries. She had a major shoulder surgery that kept her out of tennis for the back half of 2024, and then missed another three months when the injury returned.

When she entered Berlin last year, her ranking had plummeted all the way down to No. 164 in the world. No one expected her to win. Yet, she shocked the world by defeating a gauntlet of superstars, including Aryna Sabalenka, Madison Keys, Diana Shnaider, and Ons Jabeur. In the final, she defeated Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu in a thrilling match: 7-6(10), 4-6, 6-2.

With that win, Vondrousova became the lowest-ranked champion in the long history of the Berlin Open. In her emotional victory speech, she said:

“We came here to try and win the first match, and now this is happening, so I’m very grateful to be standing here.”

Neither Vondrousova nor Wang Xinyu are in the singles field for this year’s edition, meaning a brand-new singles champion will be crowned on Sunday.

In the 2025 doubles tournament, there was an equally massive upset. The unseeded team of Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls won the biggest trophy of their careers. They shocked the tennis world by defeating the No. 1 seeds and Italian tennis heroes, Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, with a score of 4-6, 6-2, [10-6] in the final.

Prize Money and Ranking Points: What is at Stake?

Professional tennis players are not just playing for trophies; they are playing for their livelihoods and their positions in the world rankings. The 2026 Berlin Tennis Open features a massive financial upgrade for the players.

The total collective prize pool for the tournament is approximately €1.049 million (which translates to roughly $1.21 million USD). This is a 13% increase in prize money compared to the €925,661 that was offered to players in 2025.

As a standard WTA 500 event, the tournament also offers a treasure trove of ranking points. The further a player advances through the bracket, the more points and money they take home. The champion will walk away with 500 ranking points, which can drastically boost their seeding for Wimbledon and future grand slams.

Here is the official structural breakdown of the prize money (in Euros) and the PIF WTA ranking points awarded for each round of the singles draw:

Round Reached	Prize Money (Euros)	WTA Ranking Points
First Round	€11,045	1 Point
Second Round	€15,471	60 Points
Quarterfinals	€29,110	108 Points
Semifinals	€57,395	195 Points
Finalist (Runner-Up)	€99,565	325 Points
Champion (Winner)	€161,310	500 Points

With elite competitors, historic comebacks, beautiful grass courts, and higher stakes than ever before, the 2026 Berlin Open promises to be an unforgettable week of world-class tennis. Turn on your televisions and enjoy the show!