Tennis Professionals Rally to raise money for flood victims
A number of tennis stars will come together a day prior to the 2011 Australian Open, on the centre court, in Melbourne Park to raise money for the Queensland flood victims. Samantha Stosur and Patrick Rafter, of Queensland, stated yesterday that the Tennis Australia will organize a charity day that will feature top tennis professionals such as Rafael Nadal of Spain and Roger Federer of Switzerland. Moreover, the Association of Tennis Professional and the Women's Tennis Association will donate $10 for every ace served at Brisbane, last week, in Sydney and for the next two weeks in Melbourne.
''We are going to get all the players involved, as many as want to get involved, get them on centre court and have a good, fun day and try to get everyone to dig deep. Right throughout the tournament I think you'll see things [continuing to raise money]. It'll evolve over the two weeks because it's just such a sudden thing to have happen. 'I would like to think we can raise close to $1 million. I hope so. It just seems such a small, insignificant amount when you think about the billions and billions of dollars [the floods have cost] though. We'll keep trying our best and see what happens,'' said Rafter.
Furthermore, Stosur stated that she thinks the tennis community, everyone from overseas and all of the players now actually know what it is all about after having seen pictures of the Pat Rafter Arena underwater.
Upon being asked about how he felt about seeing the Pat Rafter Arena underwater, Patrick stated that it was amazing, but it is the least of their worries. Rafter said that it is just a tennis complex and we need to worry about the people, who are now homeless and have lost their livelihood. Rafter added, ''I think we'll see a lot of great things and a lot people pull together and stick together and help everyone out. You know everyone will help each other. I think it's going to be a really good bonding thing. It's happening all over Australia, and it will happen in Queensland as well.''
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