Chris Evert Raises $700,000 for the Children of South Florida; Annual Pro-Celebrity Tournament Brings out Hollywood Stars and Tennis Legends
Article by: Pedro Heizer
Pictures by Nicole Vickers
DELRAY BEACH, FL – Chris Evert’s 21st annual Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic raised more than $700,000 to benefit neglected and abused children in South Florida during two days of tennis at the Delray Beach Tennis Center.
This year’s event was one of the best one to date. “The turnout this year was great, we had big crowds and it was just amazing” said Chris Evert, the host of the event.
This year’s event had the most star studded line-up in the events history with tennis legends Martina Navratilo, Sebastien Grosjean, Anna Kournikova, actors Jeffrey Donovan from the hit-show Burn Notice, Alan Thicke from the show Growing Pains, comedian Jon Lovitz from Saturday Night Live, musicians Gavin Rossdale, David Cook, among many others.
David Cook was without a doubt one of the most popular of the celebrities at the event “We sold a lot of tickets thanks to David” said Chris Evert “David actually approached us about playing. And he just started learning. It takes a lot of courage for David to do this.”
David Cook began playing tennis only eight months ago and was already out on the courts. When asked if playing tennis in front of a crowd was worse than the finale of American Idol, Cook quickly responded “ Oh man, this by a landslide. I have some confidence in singing, but I have no confidence at all in a back hand.”
In his first Celebrity-Pro Classic event, Cook went 1-1 with a win coming on Saturday with Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean and a loss on Sunday with Martina Navratilova.
“I was having Butterflies like nothing, but they made it really fun and easy. All things considered I did okay this year.” Cook later told The Boca Raton Tribune.
The most anticipated match of the event was on Sunday when Christ Evert and actor, Scott Folley took on tennis great Anna Kournikova and musician Gavin Rossdale. Kournikova and Rossdale defeated Evert and Folley 6-4 but the match was a back and forth battle that made it look as if Folley and Rossdale were professional tennis players playing alongside Kournikova and Evert.
“The competition this year was great. It was better than years before, the celebrities keep getting better and better every year.” Evert told the Boca Raton Tribune after the match.
In all, the 21st Annual Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic raised more than $700,000 in the event alone.
After the event, people had nothing but nice things to say about the event and Chris Evert herself. Tennis star and Boca Raton resident Vince Spadea said “Chris Evert is amazing. She’s been doing this for so many years and it’s getting better and better. She gets people to come out and support her in the stands for this great cause.”
“This is my second year coming back to this event and her energy is amazing,” Said actor Jeffrey Donovan of the hit show Burn Notice, “I told her as soon as I got out of the car; ‘Your charity has the most generous spirits of any charities I’ve been part of.’ No one treats you better than her and her staff.”
Not only did the event raise over $700,00 but on Saturday, the event’s annual Gala dinner was held at the Boca Raton Resort and it raised over $180,000. Some of the action items were a US Open ticket package with seats in the USTA President’s Box that went for $19,000, two roundtrip tickets to fly anywhere in the world on Swiss International Airlines that went for $13,000, and a Wimbledon Ticket package that raised $7,500.
Tickets and VIP tours at television shows also were popular, with a visit to the set of the hit show Burn Notice with the show’s star Jeffrey Donovan bringing $11,000, an American Idol Finale package raising $6,000, and two Fox & Friends backstage visits netting a combined $9,000.
