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Tennis charity: Federer vs. Nadal raise $2.64m

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:39:02 +0000

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal may have kept their fans waiting all year for a Federer vs. Nadal Grand Slam final, but the audience of the Tennis Charity Gala at Cibeles Palace, in Madrid, Spain was lucky enough to see the two world-class tennis players compete for good. So were the audiences of various other European tennis courts as Federer and Nadal went on tour for charity.

“We wanted to take advantage of our head-to-head rivalry over recent years … and help people who need it,” Rafael Nadal was quoted as saying a few days ago, when the pair announced they would be playing back to back games for charity before the year comes to an end.

The first match of the row took place in Zurich, Switzerland. The match held at the city’s Hallenstadion raised funds to the Roger Federer Foundation, supporting charities across Africa. The “Match for Africa” was dubbed an “overwhelming success” by the Foundation’s website, according to which, the two professional players managed to raise some CHF 2,500,000 ($2,64m) with the event. The Foundation said it would invest the funds in educational projects in Africa in an efficient, effective and sustainable manner. The match was aired on the Swiss national TV, and its main sponsor was IMG Switzerland.

The following day found the two in Madrid, Spain, where the match raised money for unprivileged, handicapped children, through the Rafa Nadal Foundation.Latin Grammy winning Spanish pop singer David Bisbal was also present at the event, singing “Ave Maria” amongst others. The foundation, however, has not yet disclosed the amount of money the event was able to raise. Earlier in the year, the Rafa Nadal Foundation opened a tennis school in India to help hone the talents of underprivileged Indian children. Nadal announced a personal donation of $100,000 a year to the project.

The current tour of exhibition tennis charity matches is not unknown for the players. Earlier this year, Nadal and Federer teamed up with six other top-notch players, Serena Williams, Lleyton Hewitt, Samantha Stosur, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick and Kim Clijsters, in an event called “Hit for Haiti”, and later the pair came together again to raise money for the Haiti victims when they played a doubles exhibition match in March.

The rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal is often mentioned to be the most famous duel in the history of professional tennis since that of Pete Sampras and André Agassi. The two have last met at an official Grand Slam final back in 2009, in the final of the Australian Open.

Federer’s 7th Wimbledon win may gain Oxfam 100,000GBP

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:00:48 +0000

As Roger Federer starts to play for his seventh Wimbledon title this monday on June 21, there seems to be something more at stake, than “just the usual”. It is especially so for UK-based charity Oxfam, that may be granted some 100,000 GBP ($148,000), in case Federer collects his seventh title.

The amazing stake is a result of a Hollywood-like will of a late fan of the swiss Tennis player, Mr. Nicholas Newlife. Newlife from Oxfordshire’s Kidlington bet 1,520GBP ($2,255) with William Hill in August 2003, saying that Federer will win seven Wimbledons before the year 2020. The odds for this at Hill were 66/1. Since then, Roger Federer has won six Wimbledon titles (the odds of him winning his seventh title sharply decreased to 6/4, despite being recently overtaken on the world ranking of professional tennis players by Rafael Nadal, after the spaniard won the Roland Garros tournament), and his seventh might be on its way in the upcoming days. Not only would this break the alltime record of Pete Sampras, but would result a payout of 101,840 GBP to the benefit of Oxfam charity.

Mr. Newlife died last February, aged 69, and left his entire estate to Oxfam. The unusual heritage included the betting slips for various cricket and tennis wagers.

“Mr Newlife made arrangements in his will to pass any profit from his bet on to his favored charity, Oxfam – a unique eventuality in our experience,” said Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe talking to AFP news agency.

“We will, of course, be handing the profits from his far-sighted wager to them just as soon as Federer holds the trophy aloft for a seventh time.

“In the event that he fails to win this year – and he is 6/4 favourite to do so – the bet does not run out until 2019,” Sharpe added.

Federer will start out this year’s Wimbledon tour by meeting Alejandro Falla from Columbia. Theoretically he should not be a problem, but he will be followed by more advanced counterparts, such as Andy Roddick, Novak Djokovic and former Wimbledon-title holder Lleyton Hewitt. If Federer gets past all of them (as expected), he is supposed to meet World #1 Rafael Nadal in the final of the tournament. The guys at Oxfam, surely, will have their fingers crossed for Federer.

The Oxfam aid charity is an alliance of 14 different international organizations worldwide, fighting poverty, injustice, and seeking an impact on local communities in need. The umbrella organization covers some 3,000 local organizations, focusing their efforts on Development, Emergencies, Campaigning, Advocacy and Policy Research.