ATP: Michael Stich inducted into the Hall of Fame: “I loved the game”

Michael Stich has been inducted into the International Hall of Fame in tennis. At the ceremony on Saturday afternoon in Newport, Rhode Island, the 49-year-old was deeply moved. He is proud and honored, Stich said.

“When I was 15 or 16, I didn’t want to be a professional at all. I had no idea what that meant,” said Stich in his emotional speech under a bright blue sky and said: “I hated losing. More than anything, and that’s a good basis.” But the real reason why he played tennis in the end was: “I loved this game.”

Stich defeated Boris Becker in Wimbledon’s final on July 7, 1991, confusing the German tennis hierarchy a little. Mark Lewis, the Elmshorn coach at the time, who was also present on Saturday when his former protégé was admitted to the Hall of Fame, still remembers the moments before the special final. “Michael had this steel look in his eyes, and he said,’I won’t lose this match. Of course he didn’t lose. Michael is a man who keeps his word,” reported New Zealander Lewis at the celebration.

Stich won a total of 18 ATP tournaments and climbed to second place in the world rankings in 1993. In 1992 he won the gold medal in doubles together with Boris Becker at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. From a German perspective, he is now number six in the International Hall of Fame. Before him this honour had been bestowed upon Boris Becker, Steffi Graf, Gottfried von Cramm, Hilde Sperling and Hans Nüsslein.

Stich returned to Germany after the event. He will serve as tournament director at Rothenbaum for the last time at the ATP event in Hamburg, which starts on Monday with the main field games. On Sunday, the 49-year-old will also face former champion John McEnroe in a show fight.

Also accepted into the Hall of Fame on Saturday was the Czech Helena Sukova, who celebrated great successes in doubles alongside Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, among others.

Stich quietly criticized the loss of values in the professional circus in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag. “I have noticed that a relationship of partnership or respect between players and the tournament organizer, for example, is becoming less and less. It’s often all about business, similar to football,” said Stich: “Some players have become their own small companies. Instagram, Twitter and the like have become more important than meeting with a sponsor for half an hour and asking: What can we do? “You may regret this, but times have changed.”