German Tabloid Claims Swiss Tennis Champ as Their Own; Swiss Papers Respond
(William West/AFP/Getty Images)
German tabloid Bild Zeitunghas ruffled some feathers in Switzerland by calling Australian Open champ Stanislas Wawrinka a "German Tennis Sensation" in a headline. Wawrinka is of course considered Swiss by everyone, including Wikipedia, the definite word on everything. The Germans came back with some crap about his dual citizenship, but the Swiss weren't having it:
However, this stance has been dismissed by another Swiss paper, Blick, who point out that Stan’s great-grandfather, via whom he acquired his German passport, had only lived in Germany for a short time after fleeing Czechoslovakia in 1946.
The newspaper also added that Stan, who was born in Lausanne, spoke no German and was classed as Swiss by tennis’ governing body the ATP.
The indignity has put the typically neutral Swiss on beige alert.
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