Hit for Haiti an entertaining event

The women's doubles part of the Hit for Haiti fundraiser in Indian Wells last night was a very entertaining, and sometimes surprising, event. Steffi Graf's microphone pack kept falling off and dangling by its cord onto the court. Finally, it had to be taped to her back. Martina Navratilova provided an amusing running commentary that even included "Oh, be quiet!" when a line official called her ball out.

Navratilova and Justine Henin competed against Graf and Lindsay Davenport. At first, it looked as though Navratilova and Henin might run away with it, but Graf and Davenport soon made the event quite competitive. There were numerous breaks of serve, and it was nice to see that--after all these years--opponents still did whatever they could to stay away from Graf's forehand. And with good reason. Whenever she had the opportunity, Graf used the famous forehand to her team's advantage.

Navratilova and Henin won the match, 8-6, and all the players were equally entertaining in their interviews.

Following the men's match--which featured Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Rafael Nadal--the event took a turn which disturbed me. After the presentation of a check, Tony Bennett came to the court and sang "Smile." That would have been fine, except that while he was singing, photos of people in Haiti were shown on the large screen. Their houses have been smashed to the ground, their loved ones are dead, they have no food and supplies, but--hey...just smile! Right.