The most beautiful of finals

No-one who atten ded the singles final of the Polish Open (under the patronage of the President of the Council of Ministers) at the courts of KS "Olimpia" Poznań, on Sunday, went away disappointed. The numerous crowd filling the tribunes was treated to a spectacle worthy of the Open Championships of Poland - a final unanimously acclaimed as the most attractive in the nine-year history of the tournament.

The Rumanian Adrian Voinea, celebrating his 26th birthday, gained the upper hand, winning the second set 6:3 and leading 4:0 in the third. It seemed that the match was decided.

Yet what appeared impossible was about to take place - Christophe Rochus made up the deficit, took the set to 6:6, and finally won the tie-break.

Voinea, who earlier in the match had been applauding the Belgian for some of his play, took a long time to believe what had happened.

The Belgian, playing ambitious and precise tennis, won over the hearts of the public, who saluted the end of the match with applause for both players and a rendition of "Happy Birthday" for Adrian Voinea.

"I'd never heard of this tournament before", admitted Christophe Rochus, "I read about it in an ATP report and came here with my brother. I don't know if we'll be returning to Poznań next year". As he admitted in an interview for the Tournament Gazette, after reaching the semi-finals, he wants to earn a lot of money.

The prize fund was 125 000 dollars, of which the winner received 18 000, along with a trophy of a tennis ball, made from 180 grams of amber and silver, offered by the jewellers Wojciech Kruk, one of the sponsors of the event, and 100 ATP ranking points.

Christophe Rochus is currently ranked 88 in the world, and considered to be the Belgian number one. Adrian Voinea is a more experienced player. He began his career in 1993, and in 1995 reached the quarter-finals of the French Open. He won last year’s ATP tour event in Bournemouth, and is currently ranked at 93, compared to a career-high of 36 from July 1996.

There is also a big difference in the two players' career earnings - $1.3 million for Adrian Voinea compared with $200 000 for the 21-year-old Belgian.

Unfortunately, Polish players failed to make a big impression on the tournament. The best home player - Krzysztof Kwinta - received a grant of 12 000 zł.

Also losing out were some observers' pre-tournament favourites - the Czechs Michał Tabara and Jiři Venek, who went out in the semi-finals to Voinea and Rochus respectively.

In keeping with tradition, a number of guests were invited to Poznań, and could be seen during the play on court. Some people openly admitted that they became interested in the game of tennis as a result of the successes of Wojtek Fibak.

The VIP tournament was won by Robert Rozmus and Janusz Zaorski, and the Pro-Am went to Fibak and Dariusz Michalczewski.

A press tournament was also played, with the winner being Maciej Lehman, editor of the local daily newspaper Gazeta Poznańska.

The chief sponsors of this year’s event were bank WBK S.A. and the company Crunchips American Cream Bahlsen Ltd.

Roman Paszak