Thirteen years ago Roger Federer and the ex-number-one Andre Agassi honoured themselves on a very special court and played a horrendous sum of money.
Tennis matches have often been played at curious venues. At last year’s Laver Cup, Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych played a couple of balls on a boat in Prague, which drifted along the Vltava River.
A pitch, half of which was a grass court and the other half a sand court, has also already been occupied. At that time also by Federer together with Rafael Nadal. This match should clarify the question of who is the best tennis player. The question hasn’t been answered yet and the game on the split court didn’t bring any enlightenment.
Federer has obviously always had fun at curious tennis courts. This is also the case 13 years ago in Dubai. At the Burj Al Arab, together with the then number ten in the world, Andre Agassi took place – mutating into the most successful and lucrative press action in the world’s tennis.
According to the organizers, the cost of the exhibition match was less than 25,000 US dollars. After all, the action was a lot more than that:”The proceeds were unbelievable. If I had to give a figure, the income was around 25.5 million US dollars,”said Dubai tournament organizer Salah Talhak. The action took place as part of the ATP tournament in the United Arab Emirates.
It was not easy to convince Federer and Agassi of the showmatch at an altitude of just under 300 metres, admits Talhak:”It took them about a month to convince the two players. One of them was afraid of heights, but the match came off anyway.”