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Günter Bresnik about Horst Skoff: "Loved him like a little brother"

Günter Bresnik reflected on his most beautiful victory in Vienna these days - it is one with a sad end.

by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Oct 28, 2021, 11:12 pm

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Horst Skoff
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Horst Skoff

"The tournament victory with Horst Skoff in 1988", said Bresnik in an interview with heute.at about his most beautiful coaching moment in the Wiener Stadthalle. As a reminder: At that time, Skoff had won the final against Thomas Muster , in a thoroughly eventful final: Muster was weakened from food poisoning, Skoff collapsed in the match, but finally made it to the goal, his first win against his big rival. Two years later Skoff won again against Muster in Vienna, then in the semi-finals, but in the end Anders Jarryd was too strong. /

Most of all, Bresnik remembered the year before the victory. In 1987 he started working with Skoff, "he also played against Muster, but got cramps at 4-1 in the first set." The next day they both went jogging. At that time he, Bresnik, had little idea about tennis, but Skoff was fit the following year - and won. "That was good for him, but also for me as a coach," said Bresnik, who at the time still had to work out his good reputation as a tennis coach.

Günter Bresnik: Control mania also because of Horst Skoff

Bresnik and Skoff soon parted ways when Skoff defected to Walter Lutschinger as manager - too much show for Bresnik. Skoff, formerly number 18 in the world rankings, has long had a reputation for not having made enough of his talent. In 1995 it slipped far in the ranking and never cracked the Top 100 again. He later regretted his separation from Bresnik, and there was no rapprochement until 2008, as Bresnik once wrote in his book The Dominic Thiem Method , Skoff wanted to discuss something big with him. It never came to that: shortly after the conversation, Skoff died at the age of 39 under still unexplained circumstances in Hamburg's red-light district.

The time with Horst Skoff, but also the time after - it still has an impact on Bresnik's life today. "The control mania that I have developed may also have something to do with what became of Skoff after I had lost influence on him," he said to heute.at . And confessed to still wondering if he could have prevented Skoff's death. Bresnik says: "I loved him like a little brother."

by Florian Goosmann

Friday
Oct 29, 2021, 01:40 pm
last edit: Oct 28, 2021, 11:12 pm