BERLIN — The German Open has been taken off this year's women's tennis schedule after the Qatari owners of the rights to the tournament gave it back to the WTA Tour.

Although the contract with the Qatari tennis federation was still valid for 2009, the Qataris pulled out without informing the German tennis federation or the Berlin organizers.

"We were still counting on 2009," Josef Minderjahn, the president of the Rot-Weiss tennis club in Berlin, the host of the tournament, said Wednesday.

Minderjahn said he had been informed by the WTA that the tournament was being taken off the schedule. Georg von Waldenfels, president of the German federation, said he would try to keep the tournament in Berlin this year.

The tournament already had been downgraded under the WTA's new schedule, and its prize money had been reduced from $1 million (euro750,000) to $600,000 (euro450,500).

The Berlin clay-court tournament usually took place in May, one week before the French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year.

Germany's top men's tournament in Hamburg also has lost its Masters status and has been downgraded.

After a boom triggered by the successes of Boris Becker and Steffi Graf in the 1980s and 1990s, the public's interest in the sport has fallen dramatically in Germany.