NEW YORK, August 11, 2008 – InsideOut Sports & Entertainment today announced that Rio De Janeiro, Brazil will host a new tour event on the Outback Champions Series beginning in 2009. The Rio Champions Cup will be held March 12-15, 2009 on an indoor hard court at the HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro and will be the first tour stop in South America on the Outback Champions Series, the global tennis circuit for champion tennis players age 30 and over. Jim Courier, John McEnroe and Goran Ivanisevic are the first three players to commit to play in the eight-player round-robin event.
“We are excited to continue our rapid international expansion of the Outback Champions Series and bring an event to Brazil, the fifth different nation to currently host an Outback Champions Series tournament,” said Jon Venison, co-founding partner of InsideOut Sports & Entertainment and the Outback Champions Series. “Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s great sports cities having just successfully staged the Pan American Games in 2007 and recently being named a finalist to stage the 2016 Olympic Games. The Rio Champions Cup will provide for a lively sporting atmosphere and will be one of top tennis happenings in South America.”
The Rio Champions Cup will be played the week before the Del Mar Development Champions Cup in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, another new Outback Champions Series event announced last week by InsideOut Sports & Entertainment. Other international venues include Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands and Dubai, U.A.E.
InsideOut Sports and Entertainment will partner with former Brazilian ATP players Nelson Aerts and Danilo Marcelino of Try Sports and Ricardo Acioly of R3A Sports to run the Rio Champions Cup.
“Rio is the post card city for Brazil and staging this event here will mean a lot,” said Ricardo Acioly, President of R3A Sports and a former Davis Cup Captain for Brazil. “People from all over will now have time to plan their trip to the ‘marvelous city’ to watch great tennis and get really close to the players that have made history in our sport. This is an event that can’t be missed.”
Courier will be making his first appearance in Brazil since winning two heroic Davis Cup matches for the United States in the 1997 Davis Cup first round in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. Playing in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees, Courier beat Fernando Meligeni 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the opening match of the series, then staved off future French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (13-11) to clinch the 4-1 United States victory. Courier, a Hall of Famer and former world No. 1, won two French Open titles (1991 and 1992) and two Australian Open titles (1992 and 1993). He is one of 15 men in the history of tennis to play in all four major singles finals in a career.
McEnroe, who won the Champions Cup Boston title earlier this year with wins over Pete Sampras and Courier, is one of the most well known and colorful players in the history of the sport. He won three Wimbledon singles titles (1981, 1983 and 1984) and four U.S. Open singles titles (1979, 1980, 1981, 1984) and led the United States to five Davis Cup titles (1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1992). He won 77 career singles titles and 78 career doubles titles, including a 2006 title in San Jose – won while pairing with Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden at the age of 47.
Ivanisevic reached a career-high ranking of No. 2 during his career, where he is best known for his incredible run as a No. 125-ranked wild card to the Wimbledon title in 2001, defeating Patrick Rafter in a dramatic five-set final. He was runner-up at Wimbledon on three occasions and won 22 singles titles during his career. He was a member of Croatia’s winning Davis Cup team in 2005 and won a bronze medal in singles and doubles for Croatia at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
Founded in 2005, the Outback Champions Series features some of the biggest names in tennis over the last 25 years, including world No. 1’s McEnroe, Courier and Pete Sampras. To be eligible to compete on the Outback Champions Series, players must have reached at least a major singles final, been ranked in the top five in the world or played singles on a championship Davis Cup team.
Each Outback Champions Series event features an eight-man round-robin match format with the winner of each four-player division meeting in the title match while second place finishers in each division meet in the third-place match. Each event features $150,000 in prize money with an undefeated winner taking home $54,000 as well as Outback Champions Series points that will determine the year-end Stanford Champions Rankings No. 1. The year-end champion receives a $100,000 bonus courtesy of Stanford Financial Group, the official rankings sponsor of the Outback Champions Series. Through the first three events in 2008, McEnroe and Courier are tied for the No. 1 position with 1600 points each. Wayne Ferreira is in third position with 950 points, followed by Aaron Krickstein and Todd Martin in fourth place with 900 points each.
The 2008 Outback Champions Series kicked off March 12-16 in Naples, Fla., at The Oliver Group Champions Cup where Martin defeated McEnroe in the final. Courier won the second event of the season at The Residences at The Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman Legends Championships April 16-20, defeating Ferreira in the final, while McEnroe won his first career Outback Champions Series event in Boston April 30- May 4, defeating Krickstein in the final. The next five events on the 2008 Outback Champions Series calendar are stops in Newport, R.I., Charlotte, N.C., Dallas, Texas, Surprise, Ariz., and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
InsideOut Sports & Entertainment is a New York City-based independent producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Outback Champions Series, a collection of tennis events featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including one-night “Legendary Night” exhibitions as well as charity events and tennis fantasy camps, including the annual Ultimate Fantasy Camp. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or www.ChampionsSeriesTennis.com.
