HAASE WELCOMED BY A SURPRISE GUEST @ THE SUISSE OPEN

Written by: Staff on 25th July 2014

HAASE WELCOMED BY A SURPRISE GUEST @ THE SUISSE OPEN

epa04330441 Robin Haase of the Netherlands celebrates his victory against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia during the quarter final match at the Suisse Open tennis tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland, Friday, July 25, 2014. EPA/PETER SCHNEIDER |

Robin Haase was welcomed by a surprise guest at the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad supporters’ night held at the Grand Hotel Park.

After receiving the Gstaad consolation trophy in 2013, when he finished runner-up to Mikhail Youzhny the Dutchman joked he should at least get a goat or a small pig as a prize, referring to the cow given as a gift to Roger Federer earlier in the week.

The tournament organisers remembered this moment and rewarded Haase with a beautiful white goat from the Gstaad region, named Antonia, which produces four litres of milk every day.

“That’s a funny surprise. I didn’t expect that. And I didn’t know that goats are so big here”, Haase said, as he was posing with his new family member alongside Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.

Gstaad defending champion Mikhail Youzhny spent quality time with his family Wednesday to experience one of Switzerland’s most famous delicacies: cheese fondue. While Youzhny’s wife, Yulia, seemed to enjoy the Swiss treat, his son, Maxim, was more skeptical of having that much cheese in one pan.

The Russian, who is playing in Gstaad for the ninth time, knows the region well and enjoys coming back to the Bernese Oberland.

Robin Haase of Netherland returns a ball to Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland during their second round match at the Suisse Open tennis tournament in Gstaad, Switzerland, 24 July 2014. EPA/PETER SCHNEIDER

“I always have a great time here. I had tried cheese fondue before but this one is very nice. It’s even better with the great view we have from here,” said the 32 year old as he sat in a wooden ‘caquelon’ (fondue pan) – one of the area’s new tourist attractions.

“I better not have too much of it,” added Youzhny with a smile as his coach, Boris Sobkin, helped himself to another piece. “It might be a bit heavy.”

In another dairy-related excursion, Juan Monaco paid a visit to the ‘cheese cathedral’ in Gstaad, following his first-round win in the Crédit Agricole Suisse Open Gstaad on Monday.

“I recently visited a cheese dairy in my hometown in Tandil,” Monaco told ATPWorldTour.com. “It was great to get to know more about the history of cheese here in Switzerland.”

( Courtesy of the ATP – Original link: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2014/07/30/Atlanta-Gstaad-Umag-Off-Court-Activities-Recap.aspx?utm_source=ATPMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ATP%20World%20Tour%20Insider%20#26%20-%20June%2024%202014%20(1) )

Topics: Credit Agricole Suisse Open, Grand Hotel Park, Gstaad, Mikhail Youzhny, Robin Haase, Roger Federer, Tennis, Tennis News

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10sBalls_com says:

July 25, 2014 at 2:10 pm

HAASE WELCOMED BY A SURPRISE GUEST @ THE SUISSE OPEN- http://t.co/f20MrBxFmB @robin_haase #tennis #SuisseOpen #ATP