Wimbledon is on! KÜHNEN: These are my favorites! – Sport mix

BILD: That means?

bold: “Shopping, cooking, laundry – we do everything ourselves. However, I am at the facility every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Our walk there: five to ten minutes.”

BILD: What makes Wimbledon so fascinating for you?

bold: “In 1980 as a boy I saw Björn Borg play against John McEnroe in the final there, we sat in front of the television with a whole bunch of kids, an unforgettable experience. That’s when my dream of playing there, too, began on this Center Court.”

BILD: You did it…

bold: “Yes, exactly once, in 1992. Normally you have to go far for that, or even reach the final. For me, the draw was: first round, against Ivan Lendl. I had just beaten him in Queens, also on grass, and I was like, well…”

BILD: What happened?

bold: “Centre Court killed me. It’s incredibly impressive to walk in there. The cabins alone, the walk past all the trophies, Rudyard Kipling’s motto that stands above the entrance, that one should maintain dignity in both triumph and defeat. And then you step onto the sacred lawn, it goes up slightly, the spectators applaud. It’s like entering a cathedral. THE cathedral of tennis! You won’t find that anywhere else. Very, very impressive, very moving. After 18 minutes it was 1:6.”

BILD: A unique experience in the truest sense of the word.

bold: “Yes. But then I caught myself and lost the next two sets 6:7 after tight tie-breaks. When I got my best Wimbledon result in the quarterfinals against Stefan Edberg in 1988, we were playing on Court 1.”