Nadal Leads Stars In Annual Player Revue
Nadal Leads Stars In Annual Player Revue
Players and coaches put on entertaining show at Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel
Rafael Nadal took a break from watching Barcelona play Athletico Madrid to make a guest appearance in the annual Player Revue at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel on Wednesday night.
Stars of the ATP World Tour set aside their inhibitions to entertain their friends, family and fellow players in a series of sketches, poking good-humoured fun at life on tour and showing off their singing and dancing talents.
The show was organised by Cecilia Ghe from the ATP and Anna Galoppo, with the assistance of David Ekerot, while Lukasz Kubot acted as compere for the evening alongside Cristina Cimino.
It was Kubot who called Nadal onto stage, along with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Jamie Murray, to take part in a special quiz.
Doubles World No. 1 Murray, who also hosted a special backstage video for ATP Uncovered with partner Bruno Soares, had earlier been the subject of the first sketch of the evening, in which Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau imagined how life may have changed in the Murray household now that Jamie is atop the Emirates ATP Doubles Rankings. A very good-natured Judy Murray then joined the cast on stage.
There were two special guest stars as AS Monaco players, captain Jeremy Toulalan and Joao Moutinho, were invited onto stage, where they presented Nadal with a team shirt.
After his stunning victory earlier in the day over World No. 1 Novak Djokovic, Jiri Vesely was all smiles as he nervously made his acting debut in one of the later sketches in the evening.
Children’s party games were featured as #NextGen stars Alexander Zverev, Elias Ymer and Nick Kyrgios were depicted by Stephane Robert, Raven Klaasen and Tecau playing musical chairs in a jest competition for a wild card.
The show was brought to a thunderous close with a lively rendition of Uptown Funk, performed by Gilles Simon, Rohan Bopanna, Jeff Coetzee, Klaasen, Robert Farah and Robert.
The star of the show was arguably 11-year-old Rocco Piatti, son of Milos Raonic’s coach Riccardo Piatti, who enthusiastically assisted in a number of the performances. His supporting cast included Simon, Nadal, Tsonga, Jamie Murray, Soares, Rojer, Tecau, Farah, Juan Sebastian Cabal, Jack Reader, Bopanna, Coetzee, Klaasen, Robert, Vesely, Rajeev Ram, Andrey Kuznetsov, Teymuraz Gabashvili and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.