The Taipei Open or Taipei WTA Challenger (Chinese: 台北海碩網球公開賽) was a tournament for female professional tennis players played on indoor carpet courts. The event was classified as a WTA 125 tournament, and held annually in November in Taipei City, from 2008 until 2015, and was sponsored by the OEC Group. In 2012, the event was upgraded from a $100k ITF tournament to a WTA Challenger tournament. Its final edition took place in 2019.
History
In 2007, OEC Group Chairman Robert Han organized an ITF tournament in Taoyuan where the prize was $50,000 plus hotel.[1][2][3]
OEC has retroactively referred to the event as the 2007 OEC Cup Taiwan Ladies Open.[1][4]
In October 18–20, 2008, the OEC Group held the 2008 OEC Taipei Ladies Open, which was a WTA-sanctioned ITF $100,000+H tournament.[5] held at the National Taiwan University Gymnasium and the Taipei Arena.[6][7] In 2010 and 2011, it was called the OEC Taipei Ladies Open, and it was also sometimes referred to as the Haishuo Cup (海碩盃).[1][8][9]
In 2012, the event was upgraded to a WTA 125 event.[5][10] It had attracted over 60,000 visitors.[11] In 2013, the tournament was renamed to OEC Taipei WTA Challenger.[1][12][13][14] and used that name subsequently.[15]
^"OEC GROUP". oecgroup.com. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
^ ab"OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open". On Tennis. Retrieved 6 December 2015. Chinese Taipei is not a traditional tennis heartland, but it is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with. And now it has its first WTA-sanctioned tournament, the OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open, which is staged on the indoor hardcourts of the capital's Taipei Arena. The tournament, an ITF stop between 2008 and 2011 before being upgraded, was the first of the new WTA 125K Series events that launched in the fall of 2012. Capturing the inaugural edition was French teen Kristina Mladenovic, who also was victorious in doubles.