Kerber was able to conquer Stich in the show match on the Centre Court of the Gerry Weber Stadium on Saturday afternoon. As in the previous year, then with Nicolas Kiefer, the player from Bremen won against Stich and Sabine Lisicki. "I seem to always lose to Angi. I'll have to come back next year and Angi will, too", Stich said after the match.
Kerber was greeted with loud applause and standing ovations onto the court. The tennis fans cheered the World's No. 1. on winning the Champions Trophy again, in which fun ruled overall. Muster was especially good for a laugh in the Gerry Weber Stadion. The Austrian dived after numerous balls, just like Boris Becker in his time or stood right by the net to volley the ball.
He even acted as referee: When Stich saw the ball in, he preyed the flight of the ball. The referee Timo Jansen had to turn a blind eye quite a number of times. For example when Schett and Muster tried to give the ball a header to get it over the net in stead of using their rackets.
The tight duel had to go into a third set, which was played in a tie-break, to be decided. Kerber, who is now preparing for Wimbeldon, took Stich on straight away: "He can come back as often as he wants, I like playing here". Tournament director Ralf Weber is glad about the players' interest in playing in Halle and "that the spectators love the match, too."
On the second day of the <schauinsland-reisen Champions Trophy> on Sunday there were two more very entertaining matches in the GERRY WEBER STADION. Mansour Bahrami and Andrea Petkovic played together in the first match against Nicolas Kiefer and Luisa Meyer auf der Heide (TC Blau-Weiß Halle). Bahrami/Petkovic won in three sets 7:5, 3:6 and 11:9. Especially the "Tennis-Clown" Bahrami had the laughs on his side, took every opertunity for entertaining the tennis fans and was highly amusing.
The second duel of the Champions Trophyon Sunday was also lots of fun to watch for the many tennis fans on the Centre Court. Paul Haarhuis and Yevgeny Kafelnikov and the duo Henri Laconte/Andrei Medvedev provided plenty of entertainment and lots of witty moments. The last of the three show matches at this years GERRY WEBER OPEN was won by Haarhuis/Kafelnikov 6:4, 6:4.
