Tournament Director's Speech

Dear friends of tennis,
I’m delighted to tell you that we have a great offer for the tennis fans from Trnava and Slovakia: it is the 6th edition of the Women’s International Tournament – EMPIRE Slovak Open 2014 held in the EMPIRE Trnava tennis club.

After four editions of the tournament organized in the summer months, we got acquainted with the organization of a big international event with humility and courage. This is this year’s second edition taking place in an attractive period of clay-court season.
The year 2013 was important not only because of the change of tournament dates, but also because of the agreement with the representatives of the Slovak Tennis Association to organize such exclusive tournament as the International Women’s Championship of Slovakia. We are thankful for this trust and support.
We would like to suggest Trnava to the International Tennis Federation as the metropolis of the Slovak women clay tennis and we would like to welcome quality tennis players from Slovakia and abroad now, two weeks before the peak of the clay season – Roland Garros.
I cordially greet the previous winners of the tournament: double champion in singles Yvonne Meusburger of Austria, then Sandra Zahlavova of Czech Republic, Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and last year‘s winner Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova.  This year, Barbora is going to play in Trnava again and as a No. 1 seed, she is going to try to defend the title. This combination is certainly welcomed by the organizers and supporters of our tournament.
A short history of the tournament remembers several interesting names of the world’s tennis: Janette Husarova, Simona Halep, Elena Bovina, Jana Cepelova, Eleni Daniilidou, Jill Craybas, Karin Knapp and many others.
An exceptional character of our tournament is Renata Voracova – triple doubles champion. In 2011, she has won the title partnering Janette Husarova. We are pleased that she is going to defend her Trnavian titles from years 2011 - 2013 again in 2014. For the tennis fans’sake, I believe that this year’s tournament doubles will be exceptional and we are honored to welcome great tennis players Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. Their titles from Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic memorable final against sisters Williams are appreciated by the tennis public.
The EMPIRE Slovak Open 2014 has a fantastic Doubles & Singles Main Draw, certainly the best in the history of the tournament and, therefore, let me cordially invite all the tennis fans to Trnava.

Welcome at the TC EMPIRE tennis complex at the tournament EMPIRE Slovak Open 2014!
Miroslav Hlavna,
Director of the Tournament