For generations of tennis players world-wide, during the complete post-war period since1950, the name LTTC „Rot-Weiss“ has always had a special ring to it. For many, it was the place where they took their first tentative steps in international tennis. Some of them celebrated their first success on these grounds, others gained initial experience for their later triumphs. The International Junior Championships of Berlin always were and still are an integral part of the „Junior World Ranking Calendar“ of the International Tennis Federation and are one of the most popular events world-wide on the Junior Tour. In 2009 the tournament was able to celebrate its 50th anniversary, a singular achievement in European Junior Tennis.

Belonging to the (later) most prominent winners among the girls were Almut Sturm (1959), Katrin Pohmann (1973), Eva Pfaff (1976), Barbara Paulus (1988) and Anke Huber (1989).   The list of the junior boy winners is even more impressive: With Wolfgang Stuck, Hajo Ploetz, Wilhelm Bungert, Harald Elschenbroich, Hans-Juergen Pohmann, Karl Meiler, Uli Pinner, Peter Elter, Klaus Eberhard, Wolfgang Popp, Patrick Kuehnen and Boris Becker (1983, two years before his Wimbledon triumph), many of the best German juniors of their time added their names to the winners’ list. Among the international stars were winners Yannik Noah (1976), Bjoern Borg (1969 to 1971) und Pat Cash (1980). But there were many participants who did not appear in the winners’ list but made their international breakthrough at a later date, for example Mats Wilander, Stefan Edberg, Steffi Graf und Claudia Kohde. With so many prominent names it is worth to take a closer look at the history of the junior tournaments at the „Rot-Weiss“.