Melbourne: Tennis superstars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal jointly donated Aus$250,000 (US$172,000) for Australian bushfire relief at a charity fundraiser in smoggy Melbourne on Wednesday. The two tennis legends, with 39 Grand Slam singles titles between them, were at the Rod Laver Arena in a bid to swell the vast sums already donated to help victims of the devastating disaster. They were joined by a who's who of the tennis world, including Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Novak Djokovic, Naomi Osaka, Petra Kvitova, Dominic Thiem, Coco Gauff, Nick Kyrgios, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev.

Baby Olympia thrilled

"Twenty years this has been my home and I've had so many great matches on this court and in this country," said Williams, whose young daughter Alexis Olympia was thrilled to meet some firefighters this week. "And that's we're all here tonight to support and help out." Tennis Australia said it expected the "Rally for Relief" to raise "hundreds of thousands of dollars" to add to the more than Aus$2.8 million (US$1.9 million) already stumped up by the global tennis community.