Berlin  - The German Open women's tournament in Berlin has been sold back to the governing body WTA by its Qatari owners and won't be played anymore in the German capital, it emerged on Wednesday.

According to local daily Der Tagesspiegel, the German Tennis Federation (DTB) and other officials were not informed about the move.

The daily said that WTA boss Larry Scott confirmed the sale in an email to Josef Minderjahn, head of the hosting LTTC Rot-Weiss club.

"I can confirm that the Qatar tennis federation has sold the Tier II tournament back to the WTA Tour," the paper quoted Scott as telling Minderjahn per email on Monday.

It is the latest blow for tennis in the country which has been on a rapid decline in the years after Steffi Graf and Boris Becker.

Almost a dozen tournaments have disappeared over the years and the last big remaining event, the men's event in Hamburg, has lost its Masters status and been downgraded to a tier two event at an unfavourable July slot.

The DTB lost a court case against the ATP over the event and DTB boss Georg von Waldenfels said on Wednesday that an out-of-court settlement in connection with a DTB appeal has also failed to materialise.

But von Waldenfels said that he will make another attempt in a planned meeting with new ATP boss Adam Helfant.

Von Waldenfels also said that his body will do everything to stage the women's event in Berlin in early May as originally scheduled.

"The DTB will make it clear to the WTA that the tournament must continue in Berlin," he said.

However, Scott reportedly said he doesn't expect a 2009 edition in the German capital.

The Qatari owners appear to prefer paying the mandatory fine - the overall prize money of 600,000 dollars - instead of further running up a deficit at the event which has seen many stars since its start in 1979, but a rapid decline of spectators in the past years.

The difficult financial situation prompted the DTB to sell the tournament to Qatar's tennis federation in 2004 on a contract which would have expired after a 2009 edition.

Speculation about its end in Berlin started a few weeks ago when it was reported that the owners had not paid all bills for the 2008 edition, ticket sales for 2009 and had started and the tournament website was no longer available.

It remains unclear what will happen to the centre court which was renovated for around 20 million euros over the years and named after the nine-time champion Graf.

The host club said it is not even able to tear down the 7,000-seat arena because of the costs of 2.5 million euros. (dpa)