Congratulations Moyá! Thanks to the surprising success of their homeboy at Australia's Open (only beaten in the final, against the world's number 1, Peter Sampras), the Majorcan's normally reserved character threatens to give in to tennis fever! Well, it's to be expected, considering that the Spanish team's chances (photographs left: the Costas )of success at the Davis Cup against Germany are higher than ever, especially since becker and Stich's withdrawal. Outcome: 90% of the 7,200 tickets have already been sold, 2,000 of which have been bought by German fans. Spanish television channels have booked 30 hotel rooms in Cala Ratjada and there's talk that members of the Royal Family may appear. 
What's happening with the German team? Last Thursday Dreekman, Goellner (photographs right), Karbacher and Prinosil, along with the German team's coach, Niki Pilic, arrived on the island. They are staying at the Hotel Serrano Palace, where they are training daily in the main court. The trial run in the Zagreb tournament turned out to be a fiasco: Goeller and Dreekman didn't make it past the first round and David Prinosil only made it to the fourth round. Mr Michael Goellner, Mallorca's German consul -- who isn't exactly close to his offspring Marc-Kevin -- is rather skeptical about the German team's chances of success. In an interview with the Diario de Mallorca he stated: "The Spanish team, with Carlos Moyá is my definite favourite".
Last minute newsflash: After the television broadcasting rights were finally acquired by the ARD and the ZDF -- first and second German television channels --, for considerably less than had been stipulated by the UFA, the Rhenish circus threatens with more obstacles: if the final result is decided before Sunday's matches, the circus clowns will have first bids on the rights and the last singles match will only be able to be seen on the box.
The Majorcan Hotel Association's homepage on Internet offers an excellent information package including profiles of all the players, results of the last matches and a scale model of the grandstands. (see diagram).

The controversy over Richard Branson's luxury hotel in Banyalbufar (see Mallorca News 7/15/20) has finally come to a happy end. Surprisingly enough, the municipal council has approved the highly contentious project by absolute majority: 90 double rooms of 90 square meters each on a total area of 300.000 square meters will convert Son Bunyola, an estate on the island's west coast, into one of Mallorca's landmarks by the year 2000, when it's inauguration is foreseen. Last Wednesday Branson's representative, Axel Ball, was as satisfied over the signing of the contract as Banyalbufar's mayor, Antoni Mora. Said Ball: "Son Bunyola will only be a little larger than la Residencia, which has 68 rooms, but it will be in a totally different class". Virgin's manager anticipates remodelling expenses to come to about 3.500 million pesetas.

Piles of useful information and a lot of fun is offered in a new CD-ROM on Mallorca, published by Buhl Data Service (for 486 PC's, Windows 3.1, 8MB Ram, price: about 5.600 Ptas.; sorry, but available only in German). In collaboration with the German ZDF's travelling department, a high quality information package has ben created to introduce you to our sunny island via your home computer. It includes thirty minutes of professional videos, about one hundred pages of written text and loads of photographs. Via the trekkie-cockpit (see photograph) you have access to all sorts of offers. We recommend the bicycle routes, which are very well illustrated. And what's best of all is that if you feel like it you can complement the software yourself. Thus, the island's interactive guide becomes a personal diary, especially to suit your needs.