World-record tennis crowd watches Kim Clijsters beat Serena Williams
Record-crowd was watching the exhibition match between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters at the King Baudouin Stadium in Belgium on Thursday and the world No.1 Williams was the one who lost 6-3 6-2.
One of the aims of the event was to attract the greatest number of spectators ever and to break the record of 30,472 people watching the match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs in 1973. The organizers' goal was reached as there were 35,681 people in attendance of the Williams vs. Clijsters match.
The original name of the event was "Best of Belgium" as it was supposed to feature Belgium’s stars Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, but as Henin had to skip it due to the elbow injury sustained at Wimbledon, Serena came in as a replacement and the event was renamed to "Best of Belgium versus Best of the World".
Martina Navratilova was honorary chair judge, and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was also present. (sources: Tennis Served Fresh, Simply Serena Williams)
it was so much fun ! very nice atmosphere ! call it impressive and as serena said 'amazing'
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very happy i finally 'saw' serena and i cheered for her
(although i was happy for 'our' kim
I've never been a great fan of Serena and some of the things she says and does, but it was nice of her to step in when justine could not play.
@Dave "nice of her to step in?"
She was paid about a billion dollars.
toddy you say it like there is something wrong with her making a lot of money. From what I understand from Clijsters, it was not even about the money that was being paid to her, Clijsters had to go to her and ask her to step in at the last minute. Money was not the motivation behind it. She was helping out her friend Kim plus the organisers as they were left in a tight spot when Justine unfortunately got injured.
Well, she actually got a little bit less for that than a billion, but sure it was a joyful six-figure amount for that. So no charity here
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I was a bit surprised that they chose her instead of a Belgian player but then again with the change of the name of the event it at least makes sense.