The Tennis Players who Supported the Rally for Relief
Photo sourced from www.australianopen.com
The Rally for Relief was held today to support the victims of the devastating floods in Queensland.
The event was put together with only a few days notice after it was announced by Pat Rafter and Sam Stosur just last Thursday.
The Rally for Relief was a lot of fun and demonstrated the willingness of the tennis community to support a worthy cause and the willingness of the players to relax, have a good time and give the spectators a day to remember.
Here are 10 Tennis Moments that Really Hit the Spot
1. Pat Rafter needs an extra go to serve a ball in
Pat couldn’t manage to get either one of his first two serves in, so he was given a third serve, mainly because he’s now over 40 and needs a little extra help.
Don’t worry Pat – you’ve still got it!
2. Victoria Azarenka needs to work on her tweener
Vika goes for the tweener (the backwards between the legs shot made famous by Federer at the US Open) and completely messes it up.
Then hangs her head and (**pretends to**) walk off the court in shame.
Nice one Vika.
Practice makes perfect.
3. The muli-talented, multi-tasking Novak Djokovic
Nole finds playing tennis so easy that he can sit down on the job, enjoy a refreshment and still hit a winner.
Djokovic sitting down on the job
4. Andy Roddick takes a lines eye view
Andy sure knows how to have a good time at this kind of event.
Donning a floppy hat and big white sunnies, he swapped places with the linesman and sent the linesman out to serve.
After trying out the linesman’s job for just a few minutes, Andy commented a few times about it’s way easier than his job, and why can’t they just get it right when they have such a great view of the line.
Maybe for this one you had to be there. But it was funny.
Andy Roddick as Linesman
Photo courtesy of Spin Off Court Thirteen
5. Lleyton Hewitt’s son causes a racquet
Lleyton bought his son Cruz out onto the court.
The cutie kid looked a little trepidative but all was going OK until he started crying and had to be taken off the court by Caro Wozniaki.
Maybe he needs more match practice before being ready for Rod Laver Arena.
6. Novak Djokovic, more multi-tasking
Nole, who is right up there with Roddick in the great sense of humour stakes, took a break from playing to go and hang out with the photographers.
The photographers, of course, all started taking photos of him.
Haven’t seen the pics he took but I’m thinking that Djokovic had loads of options when retirement from tennis looms.
Djokovic with the cameramen
7. Jim Courier as umpire
I am a huge fan of Jim Courier, he is one of my all time favourite tennis commentators.
Granted he was rubbish at keeping track of the score during the match, but his presence just made the whole event even more fun. Especially when implying that Rafa doesn’t speak English well and didn’t know what was going on. (all in fun of course)
Classic quote to Kim, who was playing doubles with Rafa at the time “he understands you he just plays like he doesn’t speak English”.
Rafa. Kim. Jim. Loved the whole combo. Loved the whole thing.
8. Roger + Rafa = Fedal = Slamming Doubles Match
What a beautiful thing to see Rafa and Roger on the same side of the court, playing against Kim Clijsters and Sam Stosur.
The four players put on a fabulous display of quality shots.
Fair play to the girls, who held their own with some slamming shots and won the match.
9. The Kim / Sam Chest Bump
Watch. And learn.
Graceful move girls.
No further comment required.
The Now Legendary Chest Bump by Kim and Sam
10. The Funds Raised for Victims of the Floods
Wow! Already with corporate donations, money from ticket sales and the funds raised being matched dollar for dollar by QER, $1,800,000 has been raised.
That’s incredible.
More money will be raised via other fundraising activities during the next two weeks.
The tennis players and the Australian Open put on this event because they can.
Please donate online here. Because you can.
Here is the Australian Open video of the Rally for Relief highlights.
There were so many awesome moments during this match.
Which ones did I miss that you loved? Leave a comment and let me know.
Until next time
Grand Slam Gal
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Got reminded that I missed out on Andy Murray’s Footie Tennis display as well as the All-Crazy-Shot-Tweener-Rally.
I also loved it when Roddick was serving to Ana and she asked Djok to stand behind her in case she missed it.
Ah, so many great moments