Photos: Tennis with Stars sees football and tennis unite for charity 2015-05-11

May 12, 2015AS Roma, General Soccer Newsadmin

By Anna Italia
Follow me in Twitter @ItalianSerieA,
Facebook: Anna Italia Page

It’s a special day in Rome with the event Tennis with Stars on Monday 11 May 2015 for charity organized by Roma Cares and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia tennis tournament. AS Roma players Captain Francesco Totti, midfielder Daniele De Rossi, Alessandro Florenzi, midfielder Radja Nainggolan and Co. share a tennis court with top Tennis starts Novak Djokovic, Flavia Pennetta, Caroline Wozniacki. Rome is hosting the 2015 BNL Internazionali at the Foro Italico. All the proceeds from this evening will be donated to charitable organisations working to help disadvantaged children.

The Stadio Pietrangeli played host to a unique event seeing the stars pair off into doubles teams, with one footballer and one tennis player on each team: Totti and Djokovic, De Rossi and Juan Monaco, Florenzi and Caroline Wozniacki, Nainggolan and Flavia Pennetta, Ashley Cole and Caroline Garcia, and Leandro Paredes and Luca Vanni.

Also in attendance were Roma CEO Italo Zanzi and director general Mauro Baldissoni.

Florenzi saying, “This is something new for us, a different sport, but the most important thing is that all the proceeds are going to charity – that’s why we’re here. We’ll see how I get on, I’ve got a pretty fearsome opponent in Il Capitano! They say he’s one of the best at tennis, but let’s just wait and see tonight!”

As reported by AS Roma official site, midfielder Miralem Pjanic was watching on from the stands giving his openion about his team-mates’ skills: “Let’s just say it’s best if Radja sticks to football. Florenzi surprised me though, he’s better with his hands than he is with his feet! Totti’s got a good touch too. I don’t play tennis myself, I’m worse than Radja!”

Forward Adem Ljajic was also at the event: “It’s been a really enjoyable evening for all of us here as we’ve been able to meet some of the stars of tennis. It’s a sport I really like and Serbia has some great players, such as the world number one Djokovic, as well as Ana Ivanonic, Jelena Jankovic, Janko Tipsarevic and more.”

We also caught up with Italian tennis star Flavia Pennetta, who was delighted to have been able to take part in the event: “It’s always nice to participate in initiatives that do some good and it’s great to meet people from other sports. Football and tennis are quite different, but meeting top sportspeople is always a pleasure and doing so for charity makes it even better. What did I think of Nainngolan? Look, he made an effort, though he had a tough time of it on his backhand. A few lessons and he’ll be right as rain!”

Photos courtesy of asroma.it