Former World No. 1 Patrick Rafter and WTA World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty visited frontline healthcare workers at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Queensland on Tuesday to show their appreciation and support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pair met with David Rosengren, Executive Director of the RBWH, and had a surprise hit at a pop-up court on the hospital’s helipad with clinical nurse consultants from the Infection Prevention and Monitoring Service Trish Hurst and Michelle Doidge.

“Being in that environment, it’s pretty tricky. You can’t thank these guys enough for what they’re doing,” said Rafter.

Barty, whose sister Sara is a midwife and mum Josie also works in the medical field, came up with the initiative, and she and Rafter also toured the hospital, including the Emergency and Infections Unit, where the most Queensland COVID-19 cases have been treated. The pair also joined a video conference with other members of the medical team to express their thanks.

“It was really incredible to come into one of the COVID wards and just to see how it all works and how it’s sectioned off,” said Barty.

“There were a lot of people and a lot of unsung heroes who are going unnoticed at the moment who are doing a lot of work to keep us safe, keep the community safe and to keep us tracking in the right direction.”

Rosengren said the visit from two of the country’s most popular athletes was uplifting for everyone dealing with the pandemic.

“Being the largest hospital in Queensland, we often have to bear the brunt of lots of the hard work and lots of the complexity,” said Rosengren.

“It is so good to be able to just spend five minutes and look at the bright side of life and to get some recognition. We have plenty of Pat and Ash fans here and the smile on their faces around the hospital has been exceptional.”

David Naldbandian earned a 0.35 winning percentage (11-20) against the ‘Big Three’ of Novak Djokovic (1-4), Roger Federer (8-11) and Rafael Nadal (2-5) in his career. But over the course of three magical days in 2007, the Argentine beat them consecutively.

Entering that year’s Mutua Madrid Open — which at the time was held in October — Nalbandian had only made one quarter-final all season, and that came more than five months earlier on Barcelona’s clay. The ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid was played on hard through 2008.

 

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Madrid 2007: @nalbandiand makes history on the ATP Tour ? #MMOPEN

A post shared by ATP Tour (@atptour) on May 4, 2020 at 2:22am PDT

But Nalbandian defeated Arnaud Clement, Tomas Berdych and Juan Martin del Potro to gain momentum, and what he did for the rest of the tournament remains in the history books.

Nalbandian became the first player to defeat Nadal, Djokovic and Federer in the same tournament, doing so to win his first Masters 1000 title. First up was Nadal, who he had never previously faced. The Spaniard was World No. 2, and Nalbandian was unseeded, but the Argentine broke five times en route to a 6-1, 6-2 quarter-final win after only 71 minutes.

“Everything went right for me today,” Nalbandian said, according to Reuters. “I took advantage of all Rafa’s errors and he never felt comfortable, but I felt I played really well.”

Djokovic, who had recently cruised past Nalbandian in Montreal, was next. But Nalbandian was in far better form this time around.

“Sometimes you play bad and he was on a roll. He won against Rafa and a lot of good players this week, so obviously he had a lot of confidence on the court and you could see that,” Djokovic said.

Nalbandian earned his only victory of their ATP Head2Head series, saving the two break points he faced in a 6-4, 7-6(4) triumph. The 2005 Tennis Masters Cup champion earned another shot at maiden Masters 1000 glory, after falling short on three previous occasions.

“This is a very important win for me as I haven’t had a good year,” Nalbandian said. “I had some physical problems this year but I’ve been working hard, regained confidence, and today I got the reward on the court.”

It would not get any easier against Federer, who had won their previous five matches. But Nalbandian had a date with destiny, rallying past the top seed 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 for the trophy.

“I was very focussed, knowing I’d have to play incredibly to win and everything went right for me,” Nalbandian said. “It was a big boost for me to beat so many good players here this week.”

To this day, nobody else has beaten the ‘Big Three’ at the same tournament. Even then, Federer knew it was an impressive accomplishment.

“I guess when you beat Nadal and Djokovic back-to-back you come into the final feeling better than ever,” said Federer. “It was a pity I couldn’t stop him today.”

Roger Federer has announced that his foundation will donate $1m to provide meals for young children and their families in Africa while schools are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 103-time tour-level titlist took to Twitter to spread the message of the Roger Federer Foundation’s pledge, which will feed 64,000 vulnerable people affected by the crisis.

Now more than ever we must come together to help families in need ? https://t.co/c8fhhyRBIi

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) May 6, 2020

The Foundation is working through its normal local partner organisations in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi to provide the extra meals for the next two months.

“The normally provided school meals are often the only nutritious meal children get,” said Janine Haendel, CEO of the Roger Federer Foundation. “With schools now closed, children no longer have access to these meals. Hunger is a problem, in particular in the countries with lockdowns where vulnerable families have no reserves.”

Founded in 2003, the Roger Federer Foundation supports educational projects located in southern Africa and Switzerland. The programmes on the African continent focus on the improvement of the quality of early learning and basic education and in Switzerland on the promotion of extra-curricular activities for children affected by poverty. All activities are realised and implemented by local non-governmental authorities in close collaboration with the local communities.

Since sharing the post on Twitter, Federer’s followers have been quick to praise the 38-year-old’s work. Ruth (@ruth_rf) said, ‘Beautiful work Roger! These strange times make us think about what really matters. Mar (@sheeriow) from Peru said, ‘Thank you for being so heartwarming and humble during this situation’ and Em (@emzitto_) from South Africa added, ‘God bless you’.

Editor’s Note: ATPTour.com is resurfacing features to bring fans closer to their favourite players during the current suspension in tournament play. This story was originally published on 10 May 2017.

Diego Schwartzman had a far more eventful warm-up than he would have liked against Kei Nishikori on Wednesday at the Mutua Madrid Open, with a shot from the sixth seed hitting him directly in the groin. 

Both Schwartzman and Nishikori had a laugh at the incident and the crowd even gave Schwartzman a sympathetic round of applause as he briefly collected himself. But the most crushing blow that Nishikori delivered was a backhand winner to wrap up a 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 second-round win in exactly two hours.

Nishikori next plays local favourite David Ferrer in the round of 16 on Thursday.