Dear Editor: Stories of past tennis stars are never very far from any tennis event, like the Odlum Brown VanOpen at Hollyburn Country Club in West Vancouver, which ran from July 27 to Aug. 4. I was sitting on the deck of the club enjoying the sunshine and the view of Vancouver and the sea. Next to my table sat a tennis player and her coach. I wished her good luck for her upcoming match and told her my favourite tennis story. I called it "The Princess and the Prince of Wimbledon."
Once upon a time there was a famous tennis star called SteffiGraf. She was the darling of the people at Wimbledon. So much so that, during the quietness of the stadium, a voice could be heard, "Steffiwill you marry me?"
Before she hit the ball she stopped with her arm in midair and replied: "How much money do you have?" She met her prince, called Andre Agassi, later on and married him. Like most Brothers Grimm fairy-tale endings, "they lived happily ever after."
To my amazement I heard a voice next to me saying "I heard her say it, I was there."
I turned to my neighbour in surprise and she explained: "She was playing against me and she won."
My neighbour was Kimiko Date-Krumm, expected to win in this year's Vancouver Open.
Gudrun Honig
West Vancouver
(Editor: Kimiko Date-Krumm lost in the quarter finals.)
