Elton John and Andre Agassi warmed up side by side at the FleetCenter to John’s hit ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ Thursday night. It was team Elton versus team Billie Jean Billie Jean King, the tennis legend who holds a record 20 Wimbledon titles.
King and John are founders of World Team Tennis Smash Hits, a tennis organization dedicated to raising money to the fight HIV and AIDS.
Last night was the 11th annual event. The proceeds from the event will go to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and the Massachusetts Community AIDS Partnership. This was the second time the event has been held in Boston, and the first time tennis has ever been played at the FleetCenter.
Tennis legend John McEnroe was in the crowd, sitting beside Anna Kournikova, who played celebrity doubles with Chandra Rubin, currently ranked ninth on the Women’s Tennis Association tour.
Prior to the event, John was asked if he had a strategy.
Glancing at Agassi, he said, ‘I’ll just shut up, and let them run with it.’
‘I don’t play with strategy,’ Agassi said.
Ultimately, the night was not about tennis for the players. It was about the fight against AIDS.
John whose foundation fights AIDS worldwide spoke passionately about the 50 percent rise in AIDS cases in Britain alone.
‘The worst epidemic is not in the rich countries but in the poorer ones,’ John said. ‘Most of the money we raise goes toward people in poorer countries.’
‘We’re educating witch doctors to teach people to take pills,’ he added.
John spoke about the problems rich countries face with the virus as well. He said the foundation leaves a substantial amount of the proceeds in the community that hosts the event.
‘I think people have become complacent,’ John said. ‘They think there is medicine. They think they can be reckless anyway. They don’t realize the medicine is toxic to the body and has to be taken three to four times a day.’
Both King and John spoke about how tennis players have been at the forefront supporting the fight against AIDS.
‘Of all the sports, tennis has embraced AIDS, and I am grateful of course, with Arthur Ashe, they were always there,’ John said. ‘They should be given a lot of credit. It’s not the case in other sports.’
King and John have been friends for more than 30 years and both admit they have seen each other through good times and tough times. John’s song ‘Philadelphia Freedom’ was written for King.
‘Anytime you know someone personally, it makes it different,’ King said. ‘I worked at HBO with Arthur Ashe for 12 years.’
Several other players were also in attendance. Agassi played with 17-year old rising athlete Brendan Evans against McEnroe and Rajeev Ram, winner of the 2003 National Collegiate Athletics Association Doubles Championship. Kournikova played women’s doubles with nationally ranked Harvard tennis player Susanna Lingman, while Rubin played with Courtney Bergman, Harvard’s number one player.
Agassi and Kournikova paired up in front of a group of boys holding a sign that read ‘Anna Come To My Prom,’ and played against McEnroe and Rubin. The final game was the men’s singles match: McEnroe versus Agassi.
Monica Seles umpired the event. She said to Agassi, ‘You seem to be getting some nice bounces off that court,’ to which he replied by scoring.
The event also featured a charity auction. The highest bid was a $17,000 trip to Wimbledon. Coming in second was a one-hour lesson from John McEnroe that went for $13,000. While at the auction, McEnroe said jokingly he too, ‘will be running for the governor of California.’ One of Agassi’s rackets sold for $5,000, and one of Elton John’s piano benches sold for $9,000.
