Agassi, Safin to play exhibition games in Taiwan

Jun 3, 2010, 15:34 GMT

Taipei - Former world top tennis players Andre Agassi and Marat Safin will play two exhibition matches in Taiwan in 2011, a sports promoter said Thursday.

Integration Sports said Agassi and Safin will play doubles against Taiwan's Lu Yan-shun and Wang Yu-tzuo in Taipei and Kaohsiung on January 6 and 8, 2011.

The company did not how much the appearance fee is, but local press said that inviting the two former stars will cost about two million US dollars.

Jeff Hsu, executive director of Integration Sports, said he invited the former US and Russian stars to improve the level of Taiwanese tennis.

'As Taiwan cannot hold a formal ATP tour tournament (because Taiwan does not have a ATP -standard tennis court), we have to settle for inviting two retired tennis stars to play exhibition matches,' he told reporters.

Agassi, 40, won eight Grand Slam singles tournaments, an Olympic medal in singles and 17 ATP Masters Series tournaments. He retired from professional tennis in 2006 due to injuries.

Safin, 30, also a former world No 1, retired from professional tennis in 2009.

He held the top ATP ranking for 9 weeks in 2000 when he won his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open by defeating Pete Sampras in straight sets.

He won the Australian Open in 2005, and twice helped Russia to the Davis Cup title, in 2002 and 2006.

Safin retired on November 11 last year after making his final appearance at the Paris Masters.