Roberto Carretero defeated Àlex Corretja in the final, 2–6, 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 to win the singles tennis title at the 1996 Hamburg European Open. Andriy Medvedev was the defending champion, but lost in the second round to Jordi Burillo.

Seeds

A champion seed is indicated in bold text while text in italics indicates the round in which that seed was eliminated. The top eight seeds received a bye to the second round. • # 🇩🇪 Boris Becker (third round) • # Goran Ivanišević (second round) • # 🇷🇺 Yevgeny Kafelnikov (semifinals) • # Wayne Ferreira (quarterfinals) • # Marcelo Ríos (semifinals) • # 🇪🇸 Sergi Bruguera (quarterfinals) • # 🇫🇷 Arnaud Boetsch (third round) • # Marc Rosset (third round) • # 🇪🇸 Albert Costa (second round) • # 🇺🇸 MaliVai Washington (second round) • # 🇺🇦 Andriy Medvedev (second round) • # 🇫🇷 Cédric Pioline (second round) • # Jan Siemerink (first round) • # Richard Krajicek (third round) • # 🇪🇸 Carlos Costa (first round, retired) • # 🇦🇹 Gilbert Schaller (quarterfinals)

Draw

Finals

Top half

Section 1

Section 2

Bottom half

Section 3

Section 4