The show must go on, even if rain caused by Tropical Storm Danny got in the way a little bit.
Although most of the morning activities at this year’s Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day on Saturday, August 29 had to be canceled due to inclement weather, families still made it to the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center for a stadium show. The annual event, which was presented by Hess, has served as a kick off to the U.S. Open for the last 14 years.
Vera Woodrad, of the Bronx, said that she came out regardless of the weather because her daughter, 9-year-old Johnniesha, is a tennis fanatic. She said that they usually attend the event every year.
Marisa N’Drin, an 11-year-old Woodside resident, was at the event after winning a citywide essay contest to write about Arthur Ashe. As a winner for the 10 and up age group, she won tickets to the show, tickets to see one of the U.S. Open matches and a plaque.
Although N’Drin’s awards ceremony was that day, she said that she would have attended Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day anyway. She and mom Karen also said that they were having fun regardless of the rain.
The stadium show featured live tennis matches and a concert. The participants included actor/comedian Will Ferrell, “American Idol” winner Jordin Sparks, the band Honor Society, pop performer Justin Bieber and tennis stars Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, James Blake, Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanonic.
Ferrell played in a match, umpired another match and participated in a skills competition that day. He said that the USTA was “riding me like a mule today.”
However, his involvement was all for charity.
“The USTA was nice enough to donate $25,000 to a charity that I’m involved with called The Swedish School of Los Angeles,” he said. “They asked if I would come and participate and I said sure.”
Sparks said that her manager had been talking to her about taking part in Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, and she wanted to do it, particularly because former event participants The Jonas Brothers told her how much fun it while she was on tour with them.
“I’ve been a huge fan of sports ever since I was little so to be able to have an event for kids where they get to look up and meet their favorite sports stars is so phenomenal,” Sparks said. “You could have the next Andy Roddick, you could have the next Serena or Venus Williams here. It could take this one day to be like ‘hey, you can do it, you can be the next star’ to make them go ‘okay, I’ll do this for the rest of my life.’”
