{"id":5192,"date":"2012-11-25T08:18:05","date_gmt":"2012-11-24T22:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/?p=5192"},"modified":"2012-11-25T08:18:05","modified_gmt":"2012-11-24T22:48:05","slug":"tennis-legends-martina-navratilova-and-martina-hingis-head-to-adelaide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/news\/2012\/11\/25\/tennis-legends-martina-navratilova-and-martina-hingis-head-to-adelaide","title":{"rendered":"Navratilova and Hingis coming to Adelaide"},"content":{"rendered":"

18-time Grand Slam winner and Martina Navratilova<\/strong> and 5-time Grand Slam winner Martina Hingis<\/strong> have confirmed they will play at Memorial Drive Tennis Centre<\/strong> exclusively for the World Tennis Challenge (WTC)<\/strong> in Adelaide from 8-10 January 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WTC Co-Tournament Director Mark Woodforde<\/strong> said \u201cWe\u2019re absolutely delighted to be welcoming two of the biggest names in the history of women\u2019s tennis to Adelaide in January.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShowcasing the greatest tennis legends at Memorial Drive has always been an aim of the World Tennis Challenge and with the event\u2019s popularity growing it was the perfect time to introduce female legends as we celebrate our fifth year in 2013.\u201d continues Mark.<\/p>\n

To date, the WTC has comprised of an all men\u2019s draw featuring four of the world\u2019s top current ATP players teaming up with four legends of the game playing in teams simultaneously in a combination of single and doubles matches across two courts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The introduction of the women will see the format change to ensure spectators have an opportunity to watch Navratilova and Hingis play on court each night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martina Navratilova<\/strong> winner of 59 grand slam titles said \u201cMy old friend Mark Woodforde contacted me to say that the World Tennis Challenge was looking to head into a new direction with the introduction of women players.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter hearing about the event from some of the past WTC players and knowing Mark \u2013 I was honoured to be one of the first women invited to play \u2013 it\u2019s such a unique concept \u2013 I’m really looking forward to it\u201d said Martina.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Former world No. 1 Martina Hingis who will be making her debut at Memorial Drive said <\/strong>\u201cI’m very much looking forward to coming to Adelaide for the World Tennis Challenge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve heard all about the event from some of the guys and it sounds such a unique and exciting event.\u00a0 It is the perfect combination of some great tennis and fun entertainment.\u00a0 I think it is a great way to start another year of tennis\u201d said Hingis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m very much looking forward to playing Martina.\u201d said Hingis when asked on her thoughts of playing Navratilova, whom she is named after.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent times we\u2019ve play against each other in singles matches and we\u2019ve partnered as doubles partners.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot more relaxed these days \u2013 still very competitive of course \u2013 that is in all of our nature as sports professionals, but there is a lot less pressure and more time to enjoy it\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all our time on the tour we never really got to play against each other so it\u2019s always a special moment when we meet across the net these days.\u201d said Hingis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in regards to visiting South Australia, Hingis spoke fondly of her forthcoming visit \u201cI have never been to South Australia before but I know it\u2019s famous for great wine and beautiful beaches \u2013 hopefully I\u2019ll get to experience both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hingis, the youngest woman to be ranked No.1, retired for the second time in 2007 after reaching an unprecedented six consecutive Australian Open finals, winning in 1997-1999 and runner-up in 2000-2002.<\/p>\n

She was ranked World No.1 for 209 weeks and was widely regarded as a gifted and cerebral tennis player in an era of power-tennis.<\/p>\n

Minister for Tourism Gail Gago<\/strong> welcomed the news and the international spotlight that will shine on Adelaide during the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is truly going to be an exciting event for Adelaide and the State Government is a proud sponsor of the World Tennis Challenge \u2013 we recently extended sponsorship for a further three years,\u201d Ms Gago said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe World Tennis Challenge gives fans the chance to watch legends of the sport in action, and its Be Active Challenge gives an opportunity for the tennis playing community to get involved as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are delighted that women will join the World Tennis Challenge in 2013. Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis are true stars of the game, and I know thousands of fans will join us in welcoming them toSouth Australia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In echoing the Minister\u2019s sentiment, Tennis SA CEO Steve Baldas<\/strong> said \u201cThe South Australian tennis community applauds the Minister of Tourism, Gail Gago and the South Australian Government for its past, present and future support of the World Tennis Challenge.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest player announcement of the two women completes the 2013 World Tennis Challenge field to include current players Alexandr Dolgopolov<\/strong> (ATP ranked #18); Stan Warwinka<\/strong> (17); Viktor Troiki<\/strong> (38) and Australia\u2019s current #1 men\u2019s player Marinko Matosevic<\/strong> (49).\u00a0 The \u2018Legends\u2019 for 2013 include Pat Cash, Henri Leconte ,Mats Wilander , Yannick Noah<\/strong> and wildcard Mansour Bahrami.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2013 World Tennis Challenge will take place at Memorial Drive Tennis Centre, Adelaide, from 8 January to 10 January 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n

World Tennis Challenge 2013 tickets are on sale now starting from $5.00 for children and $20.00 for adults and can be purchased online at www.ticketek.com.au<\/a>\u00a0 or call 13 28 49.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Corporate Hospitality packages <\/a>are now available now and can be purchased direct via Tennis SA on (08) 7224 8100.<\/p>\n

For further tournament information on how to participate in the WTC Be Active Challenge which features over 2,000 tennis enthusiasts playing across the 10 day festival please visit www.worldtennischallenge.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visit us at worldtennischallenge.com<\/a> or facebook.com\/worldtennischallenge<\/a> or @WTC_Adelaide.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

World Tennis Challenge is proudly sponsored by the South Australian Government, through Events South Australia.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis head to Adelaide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5915,"featured_media":5193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/sa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}