A press conference ahead of the 27th International Greater Poland Tennis Championships was held in Poznań on Thursday. In three days, on Sunday 23 August, qualifying for the Astra Coffee & More Open 2026 begins on the AZS courts at ul. Noskowskiego 25 – an ITF World Tennis Tour M25 event with $30,000 in prize money, the highest in the tournament's history.
Two defending champions in one field
The winners of the last two editions return to Poznań. Daniel Michalski (WKT Mera Warszawa), the 2024 champion, comes into the tournament as the highest-ranked player in the field and will be seeded first. Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutyński (fairPlayce Poznań), last year's winner, will play in front of his home crowd.
Both paths to the title are worth recalling, because they show what a tournament of this level is like. Michalski played in Poznań in 2018, 2019 and 2020 and lost in the first round every time; he came back after a four-year break and won the whole event, beating the Czech Michael Vrbenský 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Lechno-Wasiutyński lost his first main-draw match here in 2023, went out in the second qualifying round a year later, and in 2025 – on an organiser's wild card – won the tournament, beating France's Mathys Erhard 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in the final. In twenty-six years of the championships only two players have taken the title on a wild card: besides him, Robert Godlewski in 2005.
Who else to watch
- The entry list also includes ATP-ranked players Karol Filar, Alan Ważny i Filip Pieczonka.
- From the international field, the tournament director points to Portugal's Tiago Pereira and North Macedonia's Oleg Prihodko.
- Main-draw wild cards went to Jan Sadzik, Adam Majchrzak, Borys Zgoła i Hugo Rytelewski, and a qualifying wild card to Maksymilian Domański.
Daniel Michalski will be seeded first. I am glad that the main draw will also feature a Poznań player, Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutyński, who won here last year. I would point to two more players who should be in contention for the title: Portugal's Tiago Pereira and North Macedonia's Oleg Prihodko.
Jacek Muzolf, tournament director
Schedule
Qualifying starts on Sunday 23 August. Singles main-draw matches begin on Tuesday 25 August. The doubles final is set for Saturday 29 August, the singles final for Sunday 30 August.
Tennis 10s on finals weekend
On Saturday and Sunday the same courts will host the Linette for Kids by Astra Coffee and More Open – an event for the youngest players in the Tennis 10s format, played in three age categories: red (Saturday, 10:30), green (Saturday, 13:00) and orange (Sunday, 10:00). The children play a few hours before the semi-finals and finals of the professional tournament, and can then watch them from a few metres away from the court.
Admission to both events is free.
Twenty-one years between a first and a tenth appearance
This year's qualifying will feature Mikołaj Borkowski – the player with the longest span of appearances in the entire history of the Poznań tournament. He first appeared here in 2005 and returned in 2006, 2013, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023. This year's edition will be his tenth appearance, and twenty-one years separate his first start from this one – in that time the prize money has grown from $10,000 to $30,000.
Every time he has played in qualifying. He came closest to the main draw between 2016 and 2018, reaching the final, third qualifying round three years in a row. Twice, in 2017 and 2019, he also played in the doubles.
A quarter of a century in one place
This year's edition is accompanied by the launch of the tournament's complete historical archive. For the first time, the full set of draws, results and entry lists from twenty-six editions has been gathered in one place: 2,287 matches and 1,082 players from 59 countries. The Poznań draws of the last two decades include the names of Hubert Hurkacz, Jan Zieliński, Łukasz Kubot, Jerzy Janowicz and Mariusz Fyrstenberg.
The tournament has been held every year since 2000 – including the 2020 season, when the pandemic brought the international tennis calendar to a halt. The ITF has recognised it with the Tournament Recognition Longevity Award.
