Estoril Open 2003 News and Events

Nieminen, Nevoa and Schuettler at the Autodromo Race Track
© ATP

Jarkko Nieminen and Rainer Schuettler have both been on the fast track to tennis success in recent years, but neither player had quite experienced speed like they did on Wednesday at the Estoril Open.

On what was a sunny day in Portugal, the two ATP stars spent the afternoon at the Autodromo do Estoril car racing track, and had the opportunity of taking a Mercedes-Benz SL 55 AMG at high speeds around the course, which was used for the Portuguese Formula One Grand Prix until five years ago.

After having the features of the car explained to them, Nieminen and Schuettler were taken for a spin by Pedro Névoa, professional racing driver and head of marketing for passenger cars for Mercedes-Benz Portugal.

Schuettler, who is a big fan of fast cars having done driver's practice with Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart, the home town of the car manufacturer, said: "It was unbelievable, the speed in the car was great, it was a great feeling. It's my most exciting car experience, but I was sweating!"

But the German was much happier being a passenger on this occasion, and was thankful to get out afterwards. "It's much more fun to ride with Pedro, a professional driver, than to drive myself," said Schuettler. "On the first lap I didn't know what to expect. I saw the wall, and I just didn't want to go into it. He was breaking so late, we were sliding. I thought we were going straight into the wall."

Nieminen, who was inspired by Finnish Formula One driver Kimi Räikkönen's recent success in Brazil, added: "I had a lot of fun. I could sit in that car forever, it was so much fun. It was fast, you could feel the pressure in your neck."