Maria Sharapova is bringing top-level tennis back to the Los Angeles area.
The five-time Grand Slam title winner will host a sports-and-entertainment event in December at the UCLA Tennis Center, with participants such as 2003 U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick, 2014 U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori of Japan, Americans Jack Sock and Madison Keys, and Britain’s Laura Robson.
The two-day tournament’s tentative schedule features Sharapova against Keys, and Nishikori against Sock. Roddick is not the only retired player who’ll swing a racket; 1989 French Open champion Michael Chang, who now works as Nishikori’s coach, is slated to be there, too.
And make no mistake: Exhibition or not, Sharapova intends to play as if something significant is at stake – and she hopes others do the same.
“I wanted to create a format in which all the players are getting ready for a big tournament – the Australian Open – and they’re ready to go out and compete. And I wanted to make this … (have) a serious style,” said Sharapova, who pulled out of hard-court tournaments the past two weeks with a right leg injury, hardly ideal preparation for the U.S. Open, which starts next Monday.