Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Maria Sharapova team up with celebs for charity ‘Stay at Home Slam’
The tennis community has once again come together to raise money for charity with Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Kei Nishikori and Maria Sharapova all taking part in the Super Mario virtual tournament.
The Mario Tennis Aces tournament, organised by IMG Tennis and played on Nintendo Switch, saw stars compete from the comfort of their homes with each receiving $25,000 to donate to a charity of their choice.
The overall tournament winner received an additional $1m that they could donate.
To give the event some extra glitz, the tennis stars partnered several celebrities while seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe and popular YouTube personality iJustine provided the commentary.
Serena teamed up with Gigi Hadid, Naomi Osaka partnered Hailey Bieber, Venus Williams and DeAndre Hopkins matched up, Maria Sharapova and Karlie Kloss were team-mates, Kei Nishikori and Steve Aoki partnered while Madison Keys teamed up with Seal
Serena and Hadid failed to live up to the hype as they crashed out in the opening round along with the Venus-Hopkins and the Sharapova-Kloss combinations.
Osaka and Bieber, meanwhile, had to forfeit their first-round match due to model Bieber’s poor internet connection.
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It was getting competitive in this last matchup 😂 #StayAtHomeSlam 📹: Facebook Gaming
The final, watched by more than 35,000 people on Facebook Gaming, saw Taylor Fritz and Tik Tok personality Addison Rae take on Nishikori and DJ Aoki.
And it was the Fritz-Rae duo who came out on top of the 6-4 scoreline. The winners decided to donate their $1 million cheque to the No Kids Hungry charity.
@whoisaddison and I really just won the Stay At Home Slam + 1 MILLION dollars for our charity of choice @nokidhungry !!!! u can tell I was a bit pumped 😅 pic.twitter.com/XiXOioRCWS
— Taylor Fritz (@Taylor_Fritz97) May 4, 2020
“I was more nervous there than any of my real tennis matches,” Fritz said.
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