The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: a personal look back
No Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in 2020 - understandable and still a shame. A personal look back at the past years in Filderstadt and Stuttgart.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Apr 21, 2020, 05:29 pm
"It can only knock." That was it, our short and crisp judgment about this young German player, whom we happened to see in qualifying in Filderstadt, my buddy McSlice and me.
In 2005 it was, we were together for the first time at a tennis tournament, in this remote street in Filderstadt. On the large field next to the large tent in which the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix was set up and had been at home since 1978. And it was cool: world stars like Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters and Elena Dementieva were there, already training for their appearance in the main field. Anke Huber was also there, now as a sports director. I watched her 1991 final against Martina Navratilova when I was 11 when I was on vacation and then became a big fan of Anke Huber and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
# IMG2 #
I recently looked through the qualification list from 2005 because I wanted to know whether the "knocking" young player had won when we were there. Had it, at least in lap 1. Sabine Lisicki was her name, by the way, we didn't want to trust her at that time, we followers of the fine blade. To err is human, Lisicki then "knocked" on a rather successful career. Much crazier from today's perspective: Angelique Kerber, Andrea Petkovic and Tatjana Maria (then still Tatjana Malek) were completely unnoticed by us at the start of this qualifying Saturday in Filderstadt. Could we have followed a match from them? Who knows ...
Once Filderstadt, then Stuttgart every year
Filderstadt 2005 was the beginning of many visits to tennis tournaments for me and McSlice. We had Stuttgart in our program almost annually, at some point with an overnight stay, at some point it became two. A visit to the Fed Cup weekend usually offered itself twice in advance. Awesome for fans and court hoppers like us: Fed Cup matches in the Porsche Arena, top-class qualifying games (for 5 euros per day!) Right next door in the Schleyer Hall. The only sadness was the sadness on Sunday evening when we had to say goodbye to the tournament, to our tennis weekend together. Monday we went back to the office. But mostly with the invaluable knowledge that we would be in Paris six weeks later.
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, it was usually the start of their own clay court season. In the rarest of cases, the weather and the seats in our small club in the middle of the forest were so good that you could play outside before the tournament started. The desire to finally hit the first balls of the year outdoors after visiting Stuttgart ... well, you can imagine.
# IMG3 #
In the past few days I have often thought of the many Filderstadt and Stuttgart years, more often than usual. With a big lump in my throat. In the past four years I was lucky enough to report for tennisnet from Stuttgart, as a tennis freak an indescribable gift. As is well known, everything is different this year, there is no tennis, no tournament, no anticipation.
The head of course says: Completely right. And orders: Stop whining, there are more important, much more important things at this time. The heart grieves, anyway.
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