Hit For Haiti

March 11 ~ 12

News junkie is a good way to describe me..have always read several newspapers a day and even when I can't get my NY Times, I find the local papers wherever we are interesting....and we find out great things to do that we would never have find out about.

Hit for Haiti was announced a couple of weeks ago in one teeny little paragraph about a tennis tournament here in the desert.  The BNP Paribas Open is held in a fabulous facility, Indian Wells Tennis Garden (iwtg.net), that's second only  in size and fabulousness to the Arthur Ashe U.S. Open venue.  Holds over 16,000.  Anyway, following a lead from Roger Federer at the Australian Open, it was announced that Federer, Nadal, Aggasi and Sampras would play an exhibition match before the March 12 evening matches for those who held a ticket for that night.  Read that....hop in the car....head to the stadium box office....secure two good seats!

Lo and behold!  A week later it's announced that Sephie Graff, Martina Navratilova, Justine Henin and Lindsey Davenport will play a ladies match that night.  Needless to say the tickets sell like wildfire....but we've already got ours!!!!  Then the day of the event, I read Tony Bennet is now going to sing.

What an evening... quite a treat.  It begins with a lovely Salute to Heroes honoring our military and first responders.  The Palm Springs High School Band puts on quite a show and is joined by active marines in a moving tribute.

The women play first and they're all miked so you can hear every word they say.  Martina needs to start a road tour stand-up comedy routine.  She is hysterical....lightens everybody up and the chatter is non stop.

Stephie keeps losing her mike pack during play and that leads to a duct tape fix that leads to inneuendo remarks.

While the banter is quick fire and the laughter frequent, this is still great tennis. And although this has the feel of country club tennis, you are often reminded of the heights these tennis greats have achieved.  Navatrilova and Henin take the eight-game pro set 8-6. Everyone of the 16,000 fans are totally appreciative.

The men take the court and the place explodes in applause. Then Rod Laver walks on court for the coin toss!

Agassi needs to join Martina on the road tour...he keeps the trash talk going while the other three, particularly Sampras, are much more serious.  Federer gets in the mix and the verbal slings and arrows fly along with 125 mile serves and amazing gets. Sampras and Federer win 8-6.

Larry Ellison, the Oracle guru, bought this tournament last December.  The firm donates $1 million to the Red Cross Haiti relief efforts and the contribution buckets are passed throughout the stadium. Be interesting to find out later how much was donated.

Oh, Tony Bennet was terrible and sung what I thought a totally inappropriate song...."Smile" while pictures of ravaged Haiti were on the jumbotron.  That was the only downer. 

Forget about him, the evening was a total blast!