By Denise Morris.
Back to Calderstones Park for the 9th to 13th June 2004 and the sun shine.
Heading the list of ATP players were Ivan Ljubicic, Vince Spadea, Irakli Labadze (nicknamed the "Georgian Goran" by the local press), Robert Kendrick, Ramon Delgado, Paul Goldstein, Jan-Frode Andersen, Frederik Sletting, Barry Cowan and local hero Ken Skupski on a return from College in the States and a local qualifier.
As an added extra this year had former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek playing exhibition matches as well as the TradIndex sponsored Legends series featuring the amazing Mansour Bahrami, Ilie Nastase, Peter McNamara and Guillermo Vilas. And to top it all Sam Smith came up to play some great mixed doubles matches.
So the programme had grown and the tennis was phenomenal with lots of action for all to enjoy. Scintillating tennis from the ATP players, side splitting laughter and amazement watching the "Legends" to keep us all entertained as well as the fact of seeing a former champion in front of us playing a match against Liverpool's own Ken Skupski.
The weather was kind for most of the days apart from the Friday – seems to be something about Fridays – and the tennis went to schedule.
Sunday saw a dream final between Ivan Ljubicic and Irakli Labadze – the two crowd favourites and fittingly won by Ivan Ljubicic. Both players were pleased to have been in Liverpool and took time after the presentations to circle the court with their trophies, allowing the spectators to snap their own personal photos. The Mayor of Liverpool was justifiably proud of the tournament adding to Liverpool’s prestige as "Culture Capital 08".
And then the final of the Legends series – and the fun of seeing Mansour Bahrami circling the court on his bicycle.
So many happy memories of a wonderful tournament and we look forward to even bigger and better times in 2005.