Andy Murray scores in ‘Hope Match for Japan’
Andy Murray was on the scoreboard as ATP World Tour All-Stars XI was trashed by Fort Lauderdale Strikers with a 4-2 loss in a charity football event on Friday in Florida.
Dubbed the "Hope Match for Japan", the event was a charity football match organized between a team of tennis superstars against a local professional team to raise money for the victims of earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Under the captaincy of the recent Grand Slam title holder Novak Djokovic, who was also the organizer of the event, several tennis stars gathered to face the Strikers, a professional team in the USA’s second tier North American
Soccer League.
Djokovic said that many stars were interested and it was difficult to choose who should play.
After careful deliberation Djokovic finally chose a team. The all star lineup included Djokovic himself as the captain, Richard Gasquet’s physio as the goal keeper, Feliciano Lopez, Marcos Baghdatis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard
Gasquet, Juan Monacco, Kei Nishikori, Viktor Troicki, Andy Murray, Jurgen Melzer
The substitutes for the team were David Marrero, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Potito Starace, Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo, Fernando Verdasco, David Ferrer
World number one Rafael Nadal was also among the reserves but he didn’t step in the field while the world number three, Roger Federer, couldn’t make it into the event.
Excited about a different sport, every tennis player wanted to attack leaving only Djokovic behind to defend. The two strikers were Murray and Baghdatis.
In this 40 minute match, all tennis stars displayed an amazing game of football. Despite having almost no time for practice, tennis stars showed excellent skills in this match and proved they are not only good with racquets.
However, they lacked in defensive skills and conceded four goals. They did however, manage to score two spectacular goals against a professional American team, which is a lot when comparing skill levels.
Murray and Baghdatis were on score sheet. In the end, Baghdatis was named man of the match with Murray the second close.
Murray also impressed Strikers’ Grant Kerr with his football skills.
"Nobody expected this event to be that successful, it was incredible," Djokovic said, “The football event was just fantastic. All the players who were there told me that they felt great, that of course they felt big support and
big compassion to the charity and to what's going on in Japan. Of course they all showed their great heart. And, as well, they enjoyed playing football. “
The death toll from Japan’s earthquake and Tsunami was totalled near 10,000 and this successful event, which was organized on such a short notice, will help the Japanese re-establish themselves.
Japanese Nishikori who was also playing was touched by this and said, "I want to thank Novak a lot (for) doing that and helping Japan"
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