The stars will align in formations you may have never seen before in Hong Kong in January.
Five Grand Slam champions and four of the world's top 10-ranked women will converge on the court in Hong Kong to bring a team twist to an exhibition event. Imagine Marat Safin sharing the doubles court with Maria Sharapova or Stefan Edberg partnering Caroline Wozniacki in mixed doubles — those tandems may well come to court.
The Hong Kong Tennis Classic 2010, set for January in Victoria Park, will see several WTA Tour top stars pair with Grand Slam champions Safin, Edberg and Michael Chang creating teams representing all different regions of the world..
The city’s showpiece event will feature four of the world’s top ten —fourth-ranked Caroline Wozniack, sixth-ranked Victoria Azarenka, seventh-ranked Venus Williams and ninth-ranked Vera Zvonareva — as well as former World No. 1 Sharapova, Argentina's Gisela Dulko and China's Jie Zheng.
US Open finalist Wozniacki, Azarenka and Edberg will represent Team Europe.
Sharapova, Zvonareva and Safin form Team Russia.
Williams, Dulko and Chang will play for Team America.
Zheng, Japan's Ayumi Morita and Paradorn Srichaphan represent Team Asia-Pacific.
The new team format will feature women's and men's singles and mixed doubles matches over four days of action-packed tennis at Victoria Park.
"We’re thrilled by the quality of our field and our unique format, a first in tennis history we believe, it should be highly competitive and a lot of fun," TPA President Ian Wade said. "We can truly say we’ll be seeing 'stars and heroes', and fans will smile in anticipation at the new twist in our line up. It’s terrific, I’m happy and I hope our many sponsors and patrons are too."
The Hong Kong Tennis Classic 2010 will receive funding from the Mega Events Fund, and this support has enabled the TPA to bring a host of big names to Hong Kong. The event will also continue to be supported by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Information Services Department.
The TPA announced it will appoint a travel agent to develop tourist packages to include air travel, hotel accommodation and tickets to the event and to promote tennis to fans in the region. The TPA will also work with the Hong Kong Tourism Board to promote the event to overseas visitors.
"The tourist packages will be attractively priced and contain elements to make them especially appealing," Wade said.
Tickets for the Hong Kong Tennis Classic will be on sale from the beginning of December.
