Facebook Gaming to Host Virtual Tennis Tournament Featuring Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Others

The top tennis players will play virtually as traditional tournaments have gone on hiatus.

By Prabhakar Thakur | Updated: 30 April 2020 14:36 IST

Facebook Gaming to Host Virtual Tennis Tournament Featuring Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, Others

Photo Credit: Twitter/ Facebook Gaming

Facebook Gaming announced that it will host an all-star virtual tennis tournament

Highlights

Serena Williams, other tennis players will compete virtually
The tournament will also have models and athletes
Traditional sports events are not being organised due to COVID-19

Leading tennis players like Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Kei Nishikori will compete in Mario Tennis Aces game to win $1 million (roughly Rs. 7.5 crores) for charity donation. The virtual all-star tennis tournament will be live-streamed on Facebook Gaming on May 3 at 1 pm PT (May 4, 1:30am IST). The tennis players will be joined by other celebrities and sportspersons for the doubles tournament. It is being held at a time when outdoor sports have become impossible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Facebook Gaming made the announcement in a tweet saying, “The biggest names in tennis are grabbing their virtual rackets for the #StayAtHomeSlam, live on Facebook Gaming this Sunday (May 3), in partnership with @IMGTennis. Watch tennis legends like Venus & Serena Williams compete in Mario Tennis Aces for a $1M charity donation!”

The tournament has been dubbed as “Stay at Home Slam” by Facebook. It will see top tennis stars including Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Naomi Osaka, Maria Sharapova, Madison Keys, and others. The list also includes American football players like Ryan Tannehill and DeAndre Hopkins. Moreover, there are some other celebrities as well who are participating.

The pairs competing include Serena Williams and Gigi Hadid, Maria Sharapova and Karlie Kloss, Venus Williams and Deandre Hopkins, Naomi Osaka and Hailey Bieber, Kei Nishikori and Steve Aoki, Madison Keys and Seal, Kevin Anderson and Ryan Tannehill, Taylor Fritz and Addison Rae.

Traditional sports tournaments have been replaced by e-sports in the past weeks because of the COVID-19 pandemic. ESPN decided to air 12 hours of e-sports coverage on April 5, as there was a void left by the traditional sports leagues, reported The Verge. MotoGP has also announced that its first Virtual GP will take place on May 3, replacing Spanish Grand Prix that was earlier postponed, according to AutoSport.

Meanwhile, Facebook Gaming recently announced a new feature called Tournaments on its platform on April 7. Users can create and organise virtual gaming tournaments using the feature. It also enables them to create, join, or follow live gaming tournament.

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