‘Real’ tickets for Cape clash go on sale this week
John-Laffnie de Jager was registering for an ATP tournament in Basel more than a quarter of a century ago when one official surprised him by speaking Afrikaans to him.
“Jy is van Suid Afrika (You are South African),” remarked the woman in charge of accreditation. “Ek is ook van Suid Afrika (I’m also South African).”
She explained she was now living in Switzerland with her husband and they had a 12-year-old boy who was a keen tennis player and was a ballboy there.
Her name was Lynette Federer, her son was Roger, and they stayed in touch.
“He calls me swaerie, the Afrikaans slang for brother-in-law.” For years De Jager had spoken to Federer about playing in SA. “He always wanted to come to SA, but he wanted to do it right.”
Federer finally found a spot on his schedule, and convinced his rival, Rafael Nadal, to join him in an exhibition match at Cape Town Stadium on February 7.
It’s the week after the Australian Open final. De Jager expects tickets to go on sale this week, saying any tickets offered prior to this were fakes.
“One of Roger’s things was it must be affordable for everybody. We want people from all backgrounds to have an opportunity to come and be part of the event.”
Apart from playing each other in a singles match that will last at least an hour, Federer and Nadal will also play an exhibition doubles game with comedian Trevor Noah and Bill Gates. Federer will team up with Gates and Nadal with Noah. The four will all wear microphones so the crowd can hear their quips.
De Jager is also hoping to break the world record for crowd attendance at a tennis match.
The mark of 35,681 was set by Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters in Brussels in 2010, surpassing the 30,492 set in the 1973 Battle of the Sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
“We’ve had more than 50,000 requests for tickets.” — David Isaacson and pictures by Getty Images