Tennis pivots back to the red dirt this week. The 2026 Hamburg Open — the WTA 250 long associated with the “Hamburg European Open” name — runs 20–26 July on the clay courts of Am Rothenbaum, one of the sport’s grand old stadiums, in the odd little clay swing that follows Wimbledon.
The storylines
Hamburg’s July date makes it a specialist’s tournament. With much of the tour resting after Wimbledon or already looking ahead to the North American hard courts, this is where clay-court players go to bank ranking points and rhythm on their preferred surface. That opens the door for grinders, big topspin games and shrewd tacticians who thrive on the slower, higher-bouncing Rothenbaum clay — and it makes the draw genuinely unpredictable from the first round.
The Rothenbaum itself is part of the draw: a 13,000-seat show court with a retractable roof and a century of tennis history, it gives a 250-level event the feel of something bigger.
Why the clay week matters
The post-Wimbledon clay events are easy to overlook, but they carry real weight for players outside the top tier — points here can be the difference between a protected seeding and a brutal early-round draw at the US Open. For fans, it’s a rare mid-summer window of proper clay-court tennis, all patient rallies and constructed points, before the tour speeds up on hard courts for the rest of the season.
When to tune in
Play starts around 11 AM local time (10 AM BST), with the featured matches on the main Rothenbaum court through the afternoon and into the evening. Sky Sports Tennis carries WTA coverage in the UK, the Tennis Channel has it in the US, and the official WTA feed is available across many markets.
If your region doesn’t carry it — or you’d rather not add another tennis subscription — the free stream linked above follows the tournament from the opening rounds to Sunday’s final. It’s also a big week elsewhere: the Mubadala Citi DC Open opens the North American hard-court swing on 27 July, and there’s Anthony Joshua, UFC Abu Dhabi and the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix across the same weekend. Guides to all of them are on the site.