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You are here: Home / Features / At 2019 Dirk Nowitzki Pro Celebrity Tennis Classic, Tommy Haas wins Title as Tennis, Basketball Stars Come Together for Charity Fundraiser

At 2019 Dirk Nowitzki Pro Celebrity Tennis Classic, Tommy Haas wins Title as Tennis, Basketball Stars Come Together for Charity Fundraiser

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At 2019 Dirk Nowitzki Pro Celebrity Tennis Classic, Tommy Haas wins Title as Tennis, Basketball Stars Come Together for Charity Fundraiser

 

 

By Thomas Cluck

 

(September 15, 2019) DALLAS, Texas – The tennis and basketball worlds collided on Sunday at SMU in University Park in Dallas, where the fourth annual Dirk Nowitzki Pro Celebrity Tennis Classic took place at the Southern Methodist University Tennis Complex, featuring retired NBA player Nowitzki, American number one John Isner, German great and Indian Wells tournament director Tommy Haas, and former ATP tour player, T Mark Knowles among others. The 2019 event marked the fourth consecutive year of the charity tennis pro-am exhibition event, benefiting the Dirk Nowitzki Foundation’s work with children in Dallas. 

 

“This is our big fundraiser for the year. We had a great dinner last night. Thanks to all the sponsors and of course supporters,” said Nowitzki. “We’ve got some great stuff last year with support a lot of local projects. So of course we’re we’re thrilled to do this event again.”

 

Playing ten rounds of ten-point match tiebreaks with rotation tennis and basketball pros and amateur players, the final saw the two best from the round-robin play take center stage on Court 1 as Haas faced NBA legend Steve Nash for the title. 

 

Barely two years removed from being one of the best players in the world on the ATP Tour, the current BNP Paribas Open tournament director Haas showed he still has it, wowing the crowd all day long in Texas and defeating Nash’s team 10-6 in the final to claim the title and trophy. 

 

“Having the support of celebs, to fly in from across the country- Tommy [Haas] told me how he actually took a red eye to be here in and landed like 7 AM- so the support from everybody means the world,” commented Nowitzki.

 

One of the biggest draws of the day was 2018 Miami Open champion Isner, making the time to join Nowitzki for his event before leaving for Geneva, Switzerland and the Laver Cup as part of his Team World exploits next week. 

 

The six-foot-11-inch American shared why it’s so important to him to be here and support Dirk’s cause. “And just last thing is to help a charity like this with tennis, he [Nowitzki] puts tennis and charity in the spotlight. It certainly does.”

 

“A lot of talking a lot of music. It’s a little bit different than ATP Tour but all in all it’s a lot of fun,” said Isner when asked about playing in the exhibition event compared to action on tour.

 

Joining Nowitzki and the tennis stars on court on Sunday were some of the Dallas Mavericks’ best talent in basketball, adding to an electric, fun-filled event for all, with a packed crowd on hand once again for this year’s event. 

 

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