ARAG Fair Play Trophy to Schuettler

After twelve years, a German tennis player was again honoured with the ARAG Fair Play Trophy awarded on the occasion of the World Team Championship at the Duesseldorf Rochusclub: Rainer Schuettler, 33, received the valuable award from Dr. Paul-Otto Fassbender, Chairman of the Board of ARAG, after the second singles on Center Court I on Thursday. The Trophy, designed and created by Duesseldorf Jewellers Hornemann, has been awarded for “exemplary conduct on and off the court” since 1988. The jury made up of international media representatives and the team captains of the eight participating teams, decided on Rainer Schuettler by a majority. Prior to Schuettler, Eric Jelen (1991) and Michael Stich (1997) were the German players who also received the Trophy. Last recipient was American James Blake in 2008.

Tournament director Dietloff von Arnim quoted from the reasoning of the jury Schuettler’s “loyalty to the tournament” and the fact that Schuettler never looks for excuses in defeats. Consequently the German player apologised to the sporting Duesseldorf spectators for his 6-0, 6-0 defeat by Soderling: “I would have liked to play longer today…” Duesseldorf (pps)