Changing Room Chat: Nadal and Djokovic plan a real clasico

NOVAK Djokovic and Rafa Nadal, the world’s top two players, will try to set a record attendance for a tennis match when they face off at Real Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium in July, the club said yesterday.

The objective of this exhibition match is to set a spectator record for a game of tennis, exceeding 80,000,” the club said on their website.

The charity event, to be played on 14 July, is being organised by the Real Madrid Foundation and the Rafa Nadal Foundation, with the proceeds going to projects developed by both around the world. Spaniard Nadal is a well-known Real fan, while Serbian Djokovic once wore a Real shirt when he walked out for a tennis match at the Madrid Masters.

If Real were to attract the size of crowd they are hoping for, it would smash the current world record, set two years ago in Belgium when 35,681 spectators witnessed a match between Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, on 8 July 2010. This broke the previous record of 30,372 people who witnessed Billie Jean King defeat Robert Larimore Riggs (both US) in the “Battle of the Sexes” in Houston, Texas, in 1973.