In a moment reminiscent of Juan Antonio Samaranch at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, Gemeinde president Aldo Kropf (above) declared this year's tournament to be the best since the Gemeinde took over the rights to the tourmament three years ago, which is saying something considering everyone had written the event off because of its later position in the summer event calendar. Certainly the fine weather of the past week played a big role: 4,200 were present for the final, 37,000 throughout the week, the skyboxes were rammed, and it took an eagle eye to notice that the stadium had had a third of the seats removed compared to previous years to make it seem fuller. But still, there was a good vibe on the Promenade and the Swiss pair Marco Chiudinelli and Michael Lammer (below) even managed to pull off a win to bring home the doubles title as a National Day present for their country (7-5, 6-3 against defending champions Jaroslav Levinsky and Filip Polasek).