Serena and Venus Williams, the best players in the world,
and Anna Kournikova and Daniela Hantuchova, the two most
attractive, will lead a galaxy of stars who have agreed to
appear in an exhilarating, ground-breaking charity event in
Ireland in December when the magic of the Ryder Cup comes to
women’s tennis.
A formal announcement is scheduled for today that Europe v
United States tennis-style will be staged at the Royal
Dublin Society Show Grounds as the focal point of a
promotion encompassing a mouthwatering fashion show — in
which Kournikova, of Russia, and Hantuchova, from Slovakia,
have agreed to appear — and a couple of concerts, expected
to figure acts of the renowned quality of The Corrs and
Kylie Minogue.
All proceeds from the event, named “The Trilogy” to
celebrate the three-pronged attractions of tennis, fashion
and music, are to go to the Chernobyl Children’s Project to
aid victims of the nuclear explosion in 1986.
The calibre of the line-up is a remarkable coup for the
promoters, Propriety Management, the sporting pedigree of
whose managing director, Sean Collins, includes his
acceptance for a number of tennis scholarships, one at the
famed Nick Bolletieri Academy in Florida, where his peers
included Marcelo Rios, the former world No 1, Mark
Philippoussis, Tommy Haas and Xavier Malisse. As a reward
for his entrepreneurial spirit, the trophy for the
championship will be called, hardly surprisingly, the
Collins Cup.
That the promoters have been able to entice such a phalanx
of the sport’s leading figures is nothing short of
miraculous. The Williams sisters have long said that they
would like to visit Ireland one day, but they had in mind
spending time on a private vacation.
None of the players in the field has been to Ireland and
their presence is certain to attract sell-out crowds and
resplendent publicity.
The sisters are taking a break and have in their sights a
return for the Sanex WTA championships, to be staged at the
Staples Centre in Los Angeles next month. After that, they
head to Dublin.
Their allure is only the start. The line-up for the Collins
Cup will also include Lindsay Davenport, the former
Wimbledon champion, Jennifer Capriati, the former French and
present Australian Open champion, and Monica Seles, a
long-time world No 1. Hantuchova, who is at a career-high No
9 in the world, and Kournikova are backed in the European
team by Iva Majoli, the 1997 French Open champion, Jelena
Dokic, from Yugoslavia, and Barbara Schett, of Austria.
The Cup will be staged from December 5-7, with two singles
on Thursday, two doubles on Friday and three singles on
Saturday. The highlight would seem to be the doubles between
the Williams sisters and Hantuchova and Dokic.
It is a format that, in golf, has stood the test of time
with the Ryder Cup and women’s Solheim Cup and to bring the
blueprint to tennis is a masterstroke. To have signed up so
many famous faces, doubly so.
That Kournikova and Hantuchova have agreed to appear on the
catwalk with a selection of the world’s most recognisable
supermodels is an imaginative way of whetting the appetite
for an event that is, I understand, already the subject of a
fierce duel for the TV rights.
Collins, who represented Ireland at junior and senior level,
is not the only man on the organising committee to have
tennis roots. Ulli Nganga, a former pupil at the LTA’s
school at Bisham Abbey, is the head of publicity. Nganga was
ranked ninth in the UK in the early 1990s, his highest world
ranking being No 390. He was a regular practice partner for
John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, Pete Sampras and
Michael Chang. Now, he has moved into company that is just
as powerful.
As it stands, the order of play for the inaugural Collins
Cup is:
Thursday, December 5:
Davenport vs. Schett
Seles vs. Kournikova
Friday, December 6:
Seles and Davenport vs. Schett and Majoli
Serena and Venus Williams vs. Hantuchova and Dokic
Saturday, December 7:
Serena Williams vs. Majoli
Venus Williams vs. Dokic
Capriati vs. Hantuchova
