Likely to be Largest Tennis Attendance in History
Tennis legends Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will play an exhibition – Match in Africa 6 – live on ESPN2 on Friday, Feb. 7, at 1:30 p.m. ET from Cape Town, South Africa. The match – with all proceeds going to the Roger Federer Foundation and its focus on children’s education in Africa – will be the first time the 20-time Major winner and current #3 in the world has played in his mother’s hometown. Nadal, with 19 Grand Slam titles, is ranked #2.
The match will be held at Cape Town Stadium that holds a capacity of over 50,000 which would be the biggest audience ever for a tennis match. The current record was set less than two months ago during Federer’s exhibition tour of Latin America. The match between Federer and Alexander Zverev at the Plaza de Toros in Mexico City was the largest crowd to watch tennis with an announced attendance of 42,517 spectators.
The singles match will be preceded at 12 p.m. on ESPN3 by a celebrity doubles match – Federer and Bill Gates vs. Nadal at Trevor Noah, host of The Daily Show.
Each of Federer’s five previous Match for Africa events, none of which were on African soil, raised in excess of one million dollars.
ESPN networks are also airing the match in Latin America, the Caribbean and the Pac Rim region.
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