Australia has been home to one of the biggest tennis tournaments of the year —the Australian Open. 

Many tennis players have a special place in their hearts for Australia. 

Seeing as the fires have continued to destroy the continent since late December, and the Australian Open started in early January, many tennis players decided to help out. 

Starting with Nicholas Kyrgios from Canberra, Australia, he tweeted, “I’ll be donating $200 per ace that I hit across all the events I play this summer. #MoreToCome #StayTuned.” 

Inspired by this, two more Australian players, Alex de Minaur and John Millman, announced that they were also going to donate money for every ace they served. 

Many more tennis players have donated for the cause. 

Serena Williams donated her prize money of $43,000 from a previous tournament to the fires and also pledged money for every ace served in Australia. 

According to atptour.com, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer donated $250,000. 

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) will donate 100 AUD for every ace served at the Brisbane International, the ASB Classic, and the Hobart International. 

Kyrgios also organized the charity match Rally for Relief. 

The biggest tennis players— Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Petra Kvitová, and many more— played in the charity match. 

In total from the Rally for Relief, the charity match raised about $ 3.5 million. 

Unfortunately, since the Australian Open started on January 3, many players have been affected due to the air quality. 

Slovenia’s Dalila Jakupović suffered from a coughing fit and eventually collapsed at a match. 

With the fires growing each day, it is called into question whether the tournament should be postponed or even cancelled. 

Nevertheless, the sport is still taking action and donating money to victims.