Not even a loudmouth with an obsessive cellphone-use disorder could keep Philipp Kohlschreiber from returning to pursue his annual love affair with Auckland.
After last year we wondered if we'd seen the last of the German. We couldn't have blamed him if he had decided to stay away. Not after a courtside patron had decided match point in his semifinal against battling Belgian Olivier Rochus was the perfect time for a chin-wag on the blower.
"Get off the f***ing phone," Kohlschreiber raged at the guilty party after dropping the point, and with it the chance to contest a second Heineken Open final.
Stanley St's intimacy is one of its great charms, but the close proximity of the winers and diners to the winners and grinners is not without drawbacks.
As the sun shines and the day wears on, observing the action tends to drop down the priority list of many in the best seats. The contempt displayed for Kohlschreiber's efforts may have been the worst example of that, but it is hardly an isolated case.
