The awards ceremony of the Stuttgart tournament experienced an embarrassing moment when the sponsor Hugo Boss, the same as Matteo Berrettini, gave the winner Jack Draper a prize that had been prepared and personalized for the Roman, in the belief/hope that he would win.
Thanks to the final reached on the beloved grass of Stuttgart, Matteo Berrettini has made another enormous leap towards rising to the ranking positions he deserves, namely the top 10. The 28-year-old Roman tennis player has climbed 30 places, rising to number 65 in the ranking, and is now looking with confidence to Wimbledon, where in 2021 he lost a historic final with Djokovic and where he could meet Jannik Sinner right from the first rounds, if he fails to get back into the seedings last minute. The Stuttgart final lost with Jack Draper he also had a rather embarrassing queue during the awards ceremony, when the tournament sponsor Hugo Boss candidly admitted that an expensive prize had been prepared and personalized for Berrettini, in the belief that he would win.
The gaffe of the sponsor Hugo Boss: the electric bike had been customized with Berrettini’s colours
The 22-year-old Draper won his first ATP title in Stuttgart, a comeback success in the third set after losing the first. In addition to the prize money of just over 110 thousand euros, the Englishman also received from the tournament sponsor an electric bike worth over 22 thousand euros. The problem was that the hybrid e-bike was completely customized with Berrettini’s khaki colorswhich has been linked since the beginning of 2022 to the same Hugo Boss which supplies it with clothing.
An embarrassing affair that was admitted live during the awards ceremony by the CEO of the German fashion company, Daniel Grieder: “This is a Novus electric bike. We have a collaboration with them, it’s the future. It’s like electric cars used to be. This is the bike of the future. It’s as fast as a big motorcycle but is as light as an e-bike“, he said, celebrating the characteristics of the technological jewel on which Draper was invited to climb.
Berrettini does not hide his regret for the defeat in Stuttgart: “This defeat will hurt me for a while”
The sponsor admits the mistake and promises to fix it
The top executive of Hugo Boss then explained, turning to Berrettini who was left speechless: “Unfortunately this bike is for the winner. I covered it with the wrong colors, Matteo. It was actually for you! So, we need to make a second bike in Jack’s colors. You will both receive a bike in your colors“, he concluded by making amends for the sensational gaffe (and also a hand on his wallet to make up for it).
Draper for his part responded with irony, after all the mood was understandably high: “They have faith in their player, you know? He’s an incredible tennis player, so good on grass, a Wimbledon final, two-time winner at Queen’s, two-time winner here, it was probably inevitable that he would win… My e-bike? I’ll order it completely black, like Batman!“.
