Four of the biggest names in professional tennis, past and present, will compete at the BNP Paribas Open next month as part of a fundraiser that aims to raise at least $1 million for earthquake victims in Haiti, the tournament's director announced Thursday.
Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras will pair up to participate in a "Hit for Haiti'' exhibition March 12 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden as part of the tennis tournament, which runs March 8-21, said Steve Simon, the tournament's director.
Federer, who is ranked No. 1, and Sampras, who retired from pro tennis in 2003, are expected to team up against Nadal, who is ranked third, and Agassi, who retired in 2006, for the exhibition, Simon said.
He said he got the idea after seeing the success of a similar event at the Australian Open, where hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised for Haiti relief efforts.
"When I saw the first `Hit for Haiti' event in Australia, I was very moved by the players coming together, on the eve of an important tournament, for such a worthy cause,'' Simon said. "I wanted to bring together an exceptional group of players, with an unprecedented amount of Grand Slam titles, at the BNP Paribas Open.''
The four men have a total of 44 Grand Slam titles, according to Simon. The exhibition promises to be an interesting match-up of current and former rivals -- Sampras won 20 out of 34 career matches against Agassi.
The March 12 exhibition will be broadcast live on the Tennis Channel at 7:30 p.m. Pacific time.
The BNP Paribas is billed as the most-attended professional tennis event outside of the sport's four major tournaments.
Defending men's and women's champions Nadal and Vera Zvonareva are set to defend their titles against hundreds of the best men and women's tennis players.
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