At his favorite spot in front of his own home in Platjenwerbe: Wilfried Thal, who played against Fred Stolle in 1997, the 1965 French Open winner. (Jens Pillnick)
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René Lacoste, Gottfried von Cramm, Fred Stolle, Tony Roche, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Gustavo Kuerten, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer – the list of prominent names goes on and on. These ten men come from the winners list of the French Open (formerly Championnat de France international de Tennis (until 1967), which has been held since 1891. And Wilfried Thal, the tennis legend of TSV Lesum-Burgdamm, played against one of them At the beginning of May 1997 the now 85-year-old, who is enjoying his retirement in the thatched house in Platjenwerbe, met the Australian Fred Stolle, who had triumphed at the Grand Slam tournament in Paris in 1965. The overall result is still impressive more: Stolle was a three-time Davis Cup winner and won a total of 17 Grand Slams in singles, doubles and mixed.
When Fred Stolle showed up with the TC Bendestorf on the TSV Lesum-Burgdamm facility, there was a lot going on in Knoops Wald. 150 spectators wanted to see how the Nordbremers, who had just been promoted to the men’s 55 regional league, pulled themselves out of the affair against the title contender Bendestorf, who was peppered with national and international aces from earlier days. Of course, there was a particular focus on the game on the center court, which can be easily followed from the roof terrace, where Wilfried Thal and Fred Stolle faced each other.
“You can already say that it was a one-sided game,” Wilfried Thal looks back on what was ultimately expressed in numbers in a 1: 6, 3: 6. But at least: He had taken four games from his opponent, who had also won the US Open (1966) in its heyday. Stolle, who is 82 years old today, would have called out “Big Shot” several times during the game. A game in which he would have been even more nervous than ever about his prominent counterpart and he once again threw his running qualities into the balance. “I ran into a lot of opponents”, thinks Wilfried Thal, who was a big number in the Northwest Tennis Association and also in the age group and was ranked 14th in Germany in the men’s 60s. But in the end there was no herb against the Australian for the man from North Bremen, who had acquired his tennis skills after his handball career. “You just noticed that he learned to play tennis from a young age. I didn’t get into tennis until I was 32, ”says Wilfried Thal, explaining the serious difference between the two careers.
If you are lucky enough to be able to compete with an exceptional player, you don’t just look at the playing time on the field or the result. He also looks at people with celebrity status, about whom one had previously only learned something from the media. And behind this facade, Wilfried Thal recognized a “very nice man” who later ate, drank and talked to the readers with a little German and a lot of English. “He deducted the place himself,” Wilfried Thal registered with the former French Open and US Open winners, behavior that is not something that can be taken for granted. However, Thal also saw the way in which the TC Bendestorf came to its national fame as anything but self-evident. “Apparently there was someone who had money,” explains Thal, explaining why the team from the Lüneburg Heath had several exceptionally good players on the team. “Among other things, number two from the GDR. But it wasn’t good enough for the individual, ”says Thal with a smile about the oversupply at the opponent’s. An opponent who, according to Thal, had prepared for the league game season at the invitation of a sponsor in a tennis camp in America.
Thal von Stolle was even more impressed in the subsequent doubles than in his single defeat: “In doubles you could see the class in volleyball.” A 0: 6, 2: 6 at Heiko Klähn’s side relentlessly reflects the action on the red ashes . The results in the lower positions looked partly friendlier, because TSV Lesum-Burgdamm benefited from the fact that Bendestorf had started without his number one, three and four. Heinz Gaßmann was very close to the point of honor, who left two match points unused at 6: 7, 6: 4, 6: 7. In the end, TSV Lesum-Burgdamm scored 0: 9 against TC Bendestorf, who competed as the reigning champion in Knoops Wald. Much more lasting than the memory of the result, however, is the fact that the Lesumers were at the start for one season in the regional league of men 55 and their figurehead Wilfried Thal played a game against the former winner of the French Open and US Open.
To person
Name: Wilfried Thal (85)
Club: TSV Lesum-Burgdamm
Sport: tennis
Family: married to Elke (since 1962), two children (Claudia and Ingo)
Occupation: Administrative employee (retired)
Greatest sporting successes: Promotion with the men 55 in the regional league; three association titles (2x singles, 1x doubles) PJ
Down to business
The acclaimed ascent or a tearful descent. An unforgettable victory or the bitter defeat at the last second. In our series “The Game of My Life”, athletes remember the greatest moment of their careers – regardless of whether it was positive or negative.
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