by Silvia

The very first time I saw Stefan, he was playing (and winning!!!) the ’88 Wimbledon final against Becker… not bad as it began…

I had never seen a tennis match before, ever, so it wasn’t the green lawn that caught my attention, not even that little yellow ball going up and down, left and right… pretty boring, to be honest (I thought).

Well, I just saw that blond guy with this lovely turned-up nose, and thought: “Where the hell does this angel come from ?!?!?!?!? God, he’s so fucking cool!!!!”. I simply had a crush on him.

Since then, thanks to Stefan, I started to follow every match, even the replicas, I got to know the rules and the players, I knew Steffi Graf (my favourite one, she’s the best!), and all the other players and their different games… and the more I got to know them, the more I liked Stefan’s game!

Needless to say, at that time nobody played like him, and nowadays, sadly, class and touch are not essential qualities required to a young tennis player, even for women.

The best moments in his career I could never forget are, of course, the Grand Slam titles; the worse are his defeats, especially in the finals (believe it or not, I swear I cried seeing him loosing important matches, I felt it like a lost chance every time…).

I think every Edberg fan would agree with me when I say the saddest moment in Stefan’s career was the Roland Garros final in ’89, lost against a predestined Michael Chang.

All the other defeats, believe me, I’d rather forget them, but this one is still stuck on my mind, and if it is so for me, I can imagine Stefan being still “disappointed” today.

Another tough moment was the Australian Open ‘90 final lost against Lendl… and against misfortune... He would have won that match wasn’t him injured. It was a pain even for us to see him aching but still fighting, as he always used to do.

I don’t know if we’ll ever have the chance to see him again on a tennis court, maybe in the senior tour; everyone should have a chance too see his tremendous game, especially young players.

Anyway, whatever he’ll do I’m sure he’ll do it with style.

Silvia, January ‘02