Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios is heading up a cause for his homeland. On Thursday, Kyrgios tweeted that he plans to donate $200 for every ace during the Australia summer season to victims of the recent bushfires in Australia. The ATP has three stops down under in January, the 24-team ATP Cup, the Adelaide International and the Australian Open.
More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed by the fires which started due to scalding temperatures and high winds throughout the country which is in the middle of its summer months.
I’m kicking off the support for those affected by the fires. I’ll be donating $200 per ace that I hit across all the events I play this summer. #MoreToCome #StayTuned
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) January 2, 2020
"It's pretty tragic what's going on, especially with my hometown Canberra being under a bit of smoke -- the most hazardous smoke in the world at the moment," Kyrgios said during an ATP Cup press conference on Thursday.
Canberra, which is the Australian capital city, is getting the brunt of the damage due to terrible air quality. Citizens of the city have been warned to stay inside as much as possible until the bushfires subside.
"It's obviously sad for everything that's going on," Kyrgios said. "There's no rain predicted there for the next four months, so it doesn't look like the fires are going to slow down any time soon, which is pretty sad."
Fellow Australian tennis player Alex de Minaur echoed Kyrgios' sentiments by tweeting out that he would match Kyrgios with $250 for every ace going towards the bushfire victims.
"I like this, I will go $250 per ace, just because I don't think I'll be hitting as many aces as you mate," de Minaur tweeted.
Other Australian players John Millman, John Peers, Ellen Perez, and Sam Stosur also revealed that they plan to donate to the cause based on the number of aces. The ATP will also donate $100 per serve during the 10-day ATP Cup.
"With more than 1,500 aces expected to be served by singles and doubles players across both the group rounds and the final eight in Sydney, the ATP Cup contribution is expected to exceed $150,000," the ATP said in a statement on Thursday.
The ATP Cup will begin on Friday with Kyrgios being his pursuit as Australia faces Germany in Group F. If he can help Australia go deep into the tournament, quite a bit of money will be donated to such a worthy cause.
