CAPE TOWN – It’s tennis, but not as you know it.
On Friday, SuperSport will broadcast 'The Match in Africa', a charity tennis event in Cape Town featuring two of the game’s titans – Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
The illustrious pair will bring their super-sized personalities to an event that has gripped the imagination. Moreover, with a celebrity doubles match as the curtain-raiser, entertainment will be central to what is shaping to be as much a social as a sporting occasion.
Surprise special guests will handle the coin toss for both the doubles and the singles matches.
At 7.30pm, philanthropist Bill Gates and entertainer Trevor Noah will join the tennis stars for doubles, a clash of A-listers guaranteed to enliven spectators and TV viewers.
The much-awaited singles match will begin at 8.30pm with a worldwide television audience taking in the action from Cape Town Stadium.
With upwards of 50 000 seats at Cape Town Stadium, expectations are that the event could shatter the record for attendance at a tennis event, established when a crowd of 42 217 watched an exhibition match between Federer and Alexander Zverev at Plaza de Toros Mexico – the world's largest bullring – in Mexico City late last year.
SuperSport 1 will cross to the venue for the build-up at 6.30pm on Friday.