‘Man, I love doner kebabs! I always try to eat them when I’m in Germany!’
And while Berlin was really getting into tennis fever, the players were getting more and more into Berlin fever from day to day. Even before the first day of play, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Tsitsipas, Dimitrov and Ruud expressed their joy at playing in Berlin. Aside from the city’s formative history, the players were particularly taken with the typical Berlin food. While ‘Struffi’ was particularly looking forward to the currywurst, the image of the typical kebab was on the minds of many of the other pros.
‘Man, I love kebabs, one of my favourite foods,‘ said Shelton. “I always try to eat one when I’m in Germany.” And so he did. After winning his singles match against Daniil Medvedev on Sunday, the 21-year-old came to the players’ bench with a white bag and handed out gifts wrapped in aluminium foil to his colleagues Kokkinakis and Alejandro Tabilo.
‘Today I had more than one, so I shared with Alej and Kokkinakis. I think they liked it,’ he said later. Australian Kokkinakis agreed: “Solid! Although it’s tough on your breath, a lot of garlic,” he complained with a laugh.
