Dietloff von Arnim, president of the Deutsche Tennis Bund (German Tennis Federation), presented Ralf Weber, TERRA WORTMANN OPEN tournament director the DTB Award for his life’s work on Monday. The award, presented in the anniversary year of the ATP 500 competition, honours Webers extraordinary work for Germany’s tennis, Arnim said.
“It is simple magnificent and notable what has been built up over the last decades in Halle“. Weber had also strongly supported many German talents and professionals and played a significant role in the tennis Bundesliga (Federal League). “You can look with pride upon what you have achieved“, Arnim explained, who is himself the former tournament director of the ATP team WM in Düsseldorfs’ Rochusclub.
The life’s work award, which is very rarely presented, had been awarded to tournament initiator Gerhard Weber, Ralf Weber’s father, once before in 2018. Tournament director Weber said the award was „a very great honour“, that „really fills him with pride“: “I think we have really done a lot for German tennis, also with the Davis Cup matches here or our Breakpoint team”. Since the premiere year 2.9955 million spectators have gone through the gates of the facility in HalleWestphalia, Weber said. 55 Germans have played in the singles and six German winners (Michael Stich, Nicolas Kiefer, David Prinosil, Tommy Haas, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Florian Mayer). “These are numbers that show how important the location Halle was for national tennis“, Weber stated, who also stressed the close, trustworthy relationship to the DTP.
