Tennis greats hit for Haiti at Indian Wells
| 15 March 2010
It is nice to know charities are still supported 2 months on from the tragedy that hit Haiti back in January. It is what happened on Friday evening at Indian Wells when the world's second largest tennis stadium saw the best of the best past and present in tennis playing together to raise funds for Haiti. First Martina Navratilova and Justine Henin played a fun to watch exhibition match against Steffi Graf and Lindsay Davenport. They were wearing head microphones so the crowd could be amused by their talking and their tennis. It was a treat to watch and the ladies looked as if they were enjoying themselves too. Navratilova and Graf still have the shots and you could really see why they dominated their respective eras. The men were next on court for a doubles match to remember, but unfortunately for the wrong reasons. The match should have passed to history - when do you get the chance to see two of the best rivalries from different times together on court? - Instead the big boys behaved like toddlers and I do hope they were told off for it!
It was so disappointing to see old time favourite players Sampras and Agassi turning this charity event into a personal bickering about unsolved issues between them. Good old Federer tried to act as pacifier in true Swiss style and Nadal just smiled uncomfortably and played the language gap card, but the damage was done and the 16.100 spectators were silent in disbelief. In all fairness Agassi is the one to blame here. He came on court and made fun of everybody, the least he could have done is to take it graciously when Sampras did a little imitation on his pigeon walk. It looks like Agassi was too busy practicing on the tennis court when he was growing up and didn't learn that if you make a joke at other people's expenses you need to be prepared to accept it too. Instead he didn't like the imitation and got personal with Pete bringing up an alleged bad tipping habit by the fellow American, which Agassi had apparently reported in his controversial biography. In the end the SamprasFederer pair won 8-6 and Sampras and Agassi embraced at the net with Agassi avoiding eye contact and brushing over Sampras' effort to reach out with an "Are you ok?" To what Agassi answered with a cold "yeah, always..."
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