TENNIS ANYONE?

NZ friend and tennis buff Peter Kiely...



...kindly invited a few of us to join him in his corporate box for the finals of the ATP tournament in Auckland last Saturday.







Above are Peter (second from the left) and his contingent with the runner-up in the singles final, Olivier Rochus of Belgium (red shirt, obviously). We were cheering for Olivier because he was the underdog, and because the eventual winner, 2004 Olympic bronze medalist Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, had his own large and boisterous cheering section of young Chileans and Kiwis.



For the doubles, we supported the German-Swiss pair over the Swede-Aussie duo, inasmuch as I live in Germany and, more importantly, we had Her Excellency Mrs Sylvie Matteucci, the Swiss Ambassador to New Zealand (above, far left) with us in Peter's box along with her doctor-husband Aldo (third from the right). We had gotten to know Sylvie and Aldo during the last Cup when they were, of course, prominent partisans for the Swiss winners Alinghi, and it was good to catch up. Our support was rewarded in the doubles....







Yves Allegro (SUI, black shirt, next to the Ambassador) and Michael Kohlmann (GER, red shirt) prevailed in an exciting match, and Peter managed for us to meet and congratulate them afterwards.