The Ljubljana PlayOut Open 2022 took place in the Slovenian capital on 27-29 May. It represented the third stop of our GLTA World Tour in South-East Europe welcoming 121 players from around the globe to compete in five different levels in both singles and doubles.
We started on Thursday evening with a special reception hosted by the City of Ljubljana in a historic first for the GLTA World Tour. We were greeted by the Deputy Mayor who spoke of the importance of sport as a tool for inclusion and promotion of diversity and how Ljubljana as a city is an ally of the LGBTIQ+ community actively promoting their rights.
The play kicked-off on Friday morning simultaneously at the two venues, namely the Tennis Center Tivoli (main venue in the famous Tivoli park adjacent to the city centre) and the Tennis Center Svoboda, both belonging to Šport Ljubljana, the city’s public company. We are particularly grateful to Kostja Židan and his team for an excellent collaboration and making us feel very welcome.
On Saturday evening we held the player’s banquet at the premises of Ljubljana Pride in an attempt to create better links with the local LGBTIQ+ community. The delicious food provided by Catering.LAB offered a unique insight to Slovenian cuisine with on site show cooking.
Unfortunately on Sunday the weather gods were not with us and we had to cancel the finals day. Despite the challenging circumstances, over 200 matches on the red clay surface were played in two full days.
Whilst tennis is at the forefront of our events, it is also about making new friends and discovering new places. For us as organisers, we made new connections and partnerships not only with the abovementioned tennis venues, but also with local LGBTIQ+ sports group Out in Slovenija. A special shout-out goes to Andrej Pišl and his team that helped us implement the Ljubljana PlayOut Open and provide us with many wonderful photo memories thanks to the volunteer photographs led by Tina.
HVALA LEPA | Thanks a lot to all the players for joining our special PlayOut Tennis adventure; we are grateful to everyone for their support and hope to return to Ljubljana in June 2024.
Visit the Ljubljana PlayOut Open 2022 page on the official GLTA website for complete draws; unfortunately there were no winners given semis and finals couldn’t be played and players instead opted for a coin-toss for fun to determine who gets the trophies.
For more pictures visit our galleries Ljubljana 2022.
The Ljubljana PlayOut Open 2022 was organized in cooperation with the following partners: