TheLadies Open Lausanne was originally founded in 1899 as theSwiss International Championships. It was a women's professional tennis tournament last held inLausanne but has been held in a number of locations inSwitzerland.
TheSwiss International Championships was founded in 1897 as a men's only event and staged at the Grasshopper Club, Zurich under the auspices of theSwiss Lawn Tennis Association. In 1898 the Swiss Lawn Tennis Association staged the event at Château d’Oex. In 1899 an open women's singles event was added to the schedule, when the venue was still in Saint Moritz.It was then hosted at multiple locations throughout its run including Gstaad. The first edition of theGstaad International tournament was played in 1915 at theGstaad Palace Hotel, which was known at the time as theRoyal Hotel, Winter & Gstaad Palace, and was organized in collaboration with the Lawn Tennis Club (LTC) Gstaad. In 1968 the tournament was renamed the Swiss Open International Championships or simply Swiss Open Championships, and was then staged permanently at Gstaad. The women's event was called theGstaad International from 1969.
The event was called theWTA Swiss Open from 1977 to 1985, and was played on outdoorclay courts. The tournament underwent a name change in 1986, when it was titled theEuropean Open until its discontinuation. It formed part of theWomen's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour. When the WTA introduced the tiering format to its circuit, the event gradually moved up, from being a Tier V in 1988–1989, a Tier IV from 1990 to 1992, and a Tier III for its remaining years.[citation needed] The WTA announced that the tournament would return in Gstaad as a clay event on the2016 Tour,[1][2] replacing another clay court eventheld in Bad Gastein.
Four Swiss players won the event:Viktorija Golubic in 2016 as well asManuela Maleeva (who formerly representedBulgaria) in 1991 won the singles, andXenia Knoll (in 2016) as well asChristiane Jolissaint won the doubles, the latter on three occasions: 1983, 1984, and 1988. Maleeva holds the record, along withChris Evert, for most singles wins; both players won the event three times, and Maleeva finished runner-up a further three occasions.
In November 2023, it was announced that the tournament would cease existing, with the license bought out along with another WTA 250 tournament to form a WTA 500 tournament elsewhere.[3]