Milan, Italy
The off-season is short on both the Men’s and Women’s tennis Tours. However, it doesn’t seem to prevent players from picking up their racquets, heading back to the court and collecting appearance fees.
With several exhibitions already set to take place in the month of December, the beautiful paradise of Honolulu Hawaii is set to play host to an exhibition of their own.
On Tuesday, Milos Raonic was announced as the latest participant in the Hawaii Open Tennis Tournament taking place December 21st through the 23rd. Raonic joins a field that already includes World No. 9 Kei Nishikori, two-time Grand Slam winner Garbine Muguruza and another Canadian Eugenie Bouchard.
The despite the sunshine and hot temperatures, the event will be played indoors and will consist of three rounds of single elimination matches played over three days in a best two out of three set format. The third set will be a 10 point tiebreak.
As we’ve seen regularly on the WTA Tour player coaching will be allowed during the tournament and not just for the women. Men’s coaches will be allowed to come on to the court to give advice as well.
Before Grand Slams, especially Australia, it’s always important that we get lots of high intensity practice matches under our belt, said Raonic. “The break before the Aussie Open is always the longest break tennis players take. We are all coming back from our off-season. I’m looking forward to competing against some great players and enjoying the beautiful island of Hawaii.”
The event will also feature a special charity match to raise money for the Kilauea volcano disaster relief. The volcano struck back in May and continued to ravish parts of the island erupting for several months destroying homes in it’s path.
The complete player entry lists are as follows
Men:
Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, Ryan Harrison, Jared Donaldson, Mackenzie McDonald, Bradley Klahn
Women:
Garbine Muguruza, Coco Vandeweghe, Cici Bellis, Eugenie Bouchard, Kayla Day, Christina McHale
@Sportshorn
