Indian Wells: Tennis greats past and present teamed up in lighthearted doubles matches to aid a serious cause - earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.
World number one Roger Federer teamed with Pete Sampras against Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi in a men’s match, while a women’s match featured Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Lindsay Davenport and Justine Henin on Friday.
Among them the participants boasted a staggering 94 Grand Slam singles titles - and they drew a capacity crowd to the 16,100-seat stadium court at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The event was sponsored by Oracle, whose founder Larry Ellison bought the Indian Wells tournament last December, and at the conclusion of play Ellison presented the Red Cross with a cheque for USD one million.
“We hope it’s going to be more than a million dollars,” Ellison said. “What we guaranteed was at least a million dollars, but people are continuing to make contributions.”
With the players wearing microphones, the audience was treated to a running comedic commentary from Agassi, whose needling of Sampras over his supposedly poor tipping habits seemed to irk his old rival.
“I think they both have a tremendous amount of pride,” Ellison said of Agassi and Sampras. “They’re both great champions, and I think they take the game very seriously. On the other hand, I think all the kidding around was very, very good natured. In that sense, I didn’t think it was serious.”
Federer and Nadal came in for some ribbing from Agassi, too, with the American telling his young Spanish playing partner at one point “You move a lot faster on TV”.
For those keeping score, Henin and Navratilova beat Davenport and Graf 8-6. Federer and Sampras won by the same margin.
The matches followed a similar Hit for Haiti event on the eve of the Australian Open, which was the brainchild of Federer.
The January 12 earthquake devastated the impoverished Caribbean nation. More than 220,000 people were killed and more than 1.3 million left homeless.
“I know we live in a good world, and in a lucky world, where things are made quite easy for us,” Federer said of himself and his fellow tennis players. “We still sometimes tend to complain for no reason...
“Obviously, I’m in this fortunate position that I can help in a big way, and I’m very happy to do so.”
Federer, a 16-time Grand Slam champion who eclipsed Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam titles, also said it was a thrill to take the court with Sampras.
“My heroes were (Boris) Becker and (Stefan) Edberg growing up. As they retired, Pete was the obvious choice. I loved watching him play. It feels very special to share the court with him.”
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