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Friday, 29 March 2024

Tennis stars raise funds for bushfire relief

Duration: 03:48s 0 shares 3 views

Tennis stars raise funds for bushfire relief
Tennis stars raise funds for bushfire relief

A host of tennis stars including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams help the Nick Kyrgios inspired "Rally for Relief" raise money for Australian bushfire relief.

SHOWS: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (JANUARY 15, 2020) (TENNIS AUSTRALIA - SEE RESTRICTIONS BEFORE USE) 1.

PLAYERS LINED UP (LEFT TO RIGHT) ROGER FEDERER, NAOMI OSAKA, ALEXANDER ZVEREV, DOMINIC THIEM, SERENA WILLIAMS, CAROLINE WOZNIACKI, PETRA KVITOVA, COCO GAUFF, NOVAK DJOKOVIC, STEFANOS TSITSIPAS, RAFAEL NADAL 2.

LINE UP NOW INCLUDING NICK KYRGIOS (2ND FROM LEFT) 3.

BUSHFIRE RELIEF EFFTennis starsORT TEAM WATCHING THE TENNIS 4.

CHAOTIC RALLY WITH EIGHT PLAYERS ON COURT ENDING WITH COCO GUAFF HITTING A WINNING VOLLEY 5.

NADAL AND DJOKOVIC LAUGHING 6.

WOZNIACKI PLAYS A THROUGH THE LEGS RETURN, SERENA WILLIAMS HITS INTO THE NET 7.

REPLAY OF WOZNIACKI'S SHOT 8.

DJOKOVIC SERVING DRINKS ON HIS RACQUET TO PLAYERS SITTING 9.

ZVEREV TAKING A GROUP SELFIE WITH OSAKA, GAUFF, WOZNIACKI AND TSITSIPAS 10.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) RAFAEL NADAL SAYING: "Yes, talking with Roger a couple of hours ago, we decided to give 250,000 Australian dollars to the burn fire relief together." 11.

"THANK YOU, TENNIS FAMILY!" POSTER BEING WAVED 12.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) RAFAEL NADAL SAYING: "Hopefully, that keeps inspiring the people to support this terrible disaster that we were going through and help to recover all the things that we need." 13.

NICK KYRGIOS WAITING TO RECEIVE SERVE FROM ROGER FEDERER SEEN PAST THE SLEEVE OF ONE OF THE FIREFIGHTERS 14.

ROGER FEDERER WINS RALLY WITH A SMASH 15.

NICK KYRGIOS WINS RALLY WITH VOLLEY 16.

FIREFIGHTERS WATCHING 17.

FEDERER WINS MATCH WHEN KYRGIOS HITS THE BALL OUT, PLAYERS EMBRACE 18.

"TO ALL OUR HEORES, THANK U!" POSTER IN THE CROWD 19.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) NICK KYRGIOS SAYING: "It's been an emotional couple of weeks, obviously.

Through the ATP Cup, and practically while I was playing so hard, I just wanted to send a message to these guys.

I just had dinner and I wrote the tweet I said, that was the opportunity for me to use my platform and then the whole Aussie team got behind me, and obviously Alex Di Minaur, John Millman and all those guys, I woke up the next day and it kind of exploded, and it was so emotional back home when I was in Canberra, couldn't even go outside.

You know, it was emotional, I'm just so happy that we had Roger, Novak, Rafa, some of the greats to get behind it, everyone around the world, the awareness has grown and I think we're doing everything we possibly can to overcome this together." 20.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) REPORTER ASKING ROGER FEDERER: "How hard was it for you over the last few months watching from afar, seeing these harrowing images?" 21.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) ROGER FEDERER: "It's been hard to watch, you know.

As you did get it through the news, you never know how bad it really is, but then you hear more and more about it, and you get the sense that it's really, really bad, and then you get down here and you get to speak to the people as well who've been affected.

It's been difficult, you know, you wish that this doesn't happen in your country.

In Switzerland, we're lucky we don't have these kind of extreme situations, so, always happy to help, always happy to lend my time, or my money for that matter, and it was an absolute pleasure to be here tonight with Nick and all the other legends of the game and at least, do my fair share." 22.

FIREFIGHTERS APPLAUDING (2 SHOTS) 23.

CROWD WITH CAPTION SHOWING ALMOST FIVE MILLION AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS RAISED 24.

ALL THE PLAYERS POSING FOR PHOTOS WITH THE FIREFIGHTING TEAM (2 SHOTS) STORY: Tennis greats Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal pledged A$250,000 ($172,000) towards the Australian bushfire relief efforts at a charity event on Wednesday (January 15) in the leadup to the Australian Open.

World number one Nadal made the announcement at Melbourne Park's Rod Laver Arena during the "Rally for Relief" event where top players including Serena Williams and Australian Open defending champion Novak Djokovic led fundraising efforts.

"Hopefully that will keep inspiring the people to support this terrible disaster that we're going through and helps to recover all the things that we need," Nadal said on court after an exhibition match.

Australia is experiencing one of its worst bushfire seasons on record, with fires burning for months and killing 28 people, destroying more than 2,500 homes and razing forests and farmland the size of Bulgaria.

Smoke from bushfires blanketed Melbourne in a thick, grey haze on Wednesday before a clearing rain-storm, disrupting the Australian Open's qualifying matches for a second successive day.

The ATP on Sunday (January 12) pledged $500,000 to the WWF Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund as part of the bushfire relief efforts.

A number of players have made individual pledges including American Williams who said she would donate all her prize-money from winning a tournament in Auckland on Sunday.

Australian Nick Kyrgios has pledged A$200 for every ace he hits this month.

The Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, starts in Melbourne on Monday (Production: Mike Brock)

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