Service: Stefan Kretzschmar, Tommy Haas and the Match of Life

On Saturday morning was pro/am time at the MercedesCup in Stuttgart. Also for the “Match of your life” winner of LeoVegas Sport, one of the leading sports betting providers in Germany.

Tommy Haas and Stefan Kretzschmar went straight to the Brad Gilbert School. No, no winning ugly, if that’s what you’re thinking. Rather the “wear black and intimidate the opponents” method.

Ex-pro Haas (“I only wear white in Wimbledon”) was of course the figurehead of the 40 or so players who made the grass courts at Weissenhof unsafe on Saturday morning. Ex-pro and tournament ambassador Michael Berrer was also at the start as a tennis specialist. And with Stefan Kretzschmar the cult handball player of the 1990s and 2000s. A look at the Leipziger’s list of successes: 421 Bundesliga matches and 1694 goals, 218 matches for the national team and 821 goals, 2002 Champions League winner with Magdeburg, 2004 silver medal winner at the Olympic Games in Athens.

Kretzschmar was astonished about the tennis skills of his opponents at the beginning. “I thought you were amateurs,” he commented on an early volley action by actor Mark Keller. Whereby “Kretzsche” was in no way inferior. All handball players – and so with the train to the self-converted point – Kretzschmar also looked for the way to the winner on the tennis court and shone above all with courageous and cleverly placed volleys with which he ironed out technical weaknesses on the backhand.

“Those upper arms… everything goes with strength”, the stadium spokesman had still celebrated at the beginning and gave the probably most trite (but in the end most correct) tactical tennis tip into the round: “Play flat, win high”. However, there was little sign of “strength” tennis for the 45-year-old, rather classic volleys and a safe serve. Above all, he convinced with full commitment, was audibly the most committed of all by far.

While Kretzschmar was mainly talking about his chances on the net, Haas took care of the running on the court. In a rally he put on two tweener lobs, and when the breath threatened to go out after the third praise, he simply pulled his fine backhand through. “That’s how tennis is fun”, Kretzsche was pleased to say and used his partner’s next presentation with a clearly arranged conclusion on the net – then there was a break.

“Game, Bet, Match” is what the LeoVegas Sport ad says. After the impressions at the Pro/Am tournament, it seems like a sentence that hobby tennis player Stefan Kretzschmar has probably heard many times during private tennis games in a modified form.

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