Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger Federer was behind the idea to add an exhibition game to the Australian Open, in order to raise funds for Haiti, and the event was a giant success, says the Open’s organizers. The event raised $200,000 in aid for Haiti, with 15,000 tickets sold, a full house, for Aus$10 each. More money was raised in the stands during the exhibition games. Another 5,000 fans who could not get into the stadium watched on the giant screens outside.
Federer’s team lost 6-7 to Rafael Nadal’s team in a doubles competition.
Team Federer: Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur
Team Nadal: Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Kim Clijsters
Links to other sites: Guardian, Roger Federer, TSR (Fre)
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 17 January 2010.
Filed under: Sports
Tags: Australian Open, doubles, exhibition match, Haiti, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, tennis
January 17th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Dear Roger
Accept my Congratulations for your sensibility and generosity for Haïti people.
It’s seem like the people’s end… I’m from Quebec, Canada.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Saw the match online and it was hilarious. By the way, Roger’s team (RED Team) defeated Nadal’s BLUE Team and not the other way around. Doesn’t matter who won, though. The event was a huge success.
January 19th, 2010 at 10:28 am
Well, Roger seems to think his team lost – on his site he says “Roger’s team was eventually defeated 6-7 in the show-match. All in all, the stars were able to generate about 200’000 Dollars with the event. The money will be donated to help the victims of the devastating earthquake in Haiti.” I think you’re right that it doesn’t matter, but it must have been a good show if that much wasn’t clear!