Sam and Pat Rafter had a light hit this morning and then held a presser today in Sydney to announce The Rally For Relief, a two-week long series of festivities to benefit the victims of the devastating flooding in Queensland. The event will kick off on Sunday afternoon at Rod Laver Arena and so far, Fed, Rafa, Nole, Sam, Pat, Kim and Lleyton have confirmed with more players expected as the event gets closer.
So basically we're guaranteed some Sam forehand target practice on Nole's balls and, Getty photogs willing, a bunch of awesome shots of Kim and Lleyton.
I can't wait to see how this event evolves over the next two weeks. Pat said he'd love to raise $1M after all is said and done, and it sounds like the player response has already been fantastic:
But to see pictures of places that you go to, I mean, last week I think the tennis community, everyone from overseas, all the players, they actually really know what it's all about now having seen pictures of Patrick Rafter Arena where we were all playing last week.
To see that underwater, kind of everyone who is not from here realizes how bad it is. It's an enormous disaster. Even where the hotel was, the South Bank area, you've got that beautiful little beach there that now doesn't exist. Again, we were all staying in those hotels and now they're gone.
So I think because it has hit where we all were, that's why, yeah, the players that don't know the area can really relate to it now as well. Yeah, they're all concerned and asking. They know that I'm from the area. Are you okay? Your family is okay? Everyone wants to do whatever they can.
Best of luck and yay tennis. Our sport and our players rule.
You can also donate yourself here.
