The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE 12th annual Mark Knowles Celebrity Tennis Invitational is here and with the amount of top notch players taking part this weekend at Atlantis on Paradise Island, host Mark Knowles said everybody will be in for a real treat.

Sam Querry and Lindsay Davenport are the most notable male and female players expected to participate. They will be joined by Knowles’ former doubles partner Xavier Malisse and mixed doubles partner Anna-Lena Gr�nefeld in his first post-retirement appearance.

“Everything is shaping great. Everybody’s here. All of the arrivals are in. We have a great squad and we’re looking forward to another productive weekend,” Knowles said. “The players are all excited to be here, some for the first time and others returning. I’m glad to have all of them on the island.”

Querry is a professional American tennis player from Thousand Oaks, California, who is currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 17, achieved on January 31, 2011. The 25-year-old, who turned pro in 2006, is coming off an impressive win over world’s No.1 ranked Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters at the end of October.

At present, Querry is the No.3 American and No.22-ranked player in the world.

Davenport, 36, is a former World No. 1 American professional tennis player. She has won three Grand Slam singles tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in singles. She was ranked World No. 1 on eight different occasions.

Malisse, nicknamed ‘The X-Man,’ is a Belgian tennis player. He is the only men’s player from his country to have been ranked in the top 20 of the ATP tour, with a career-high singles ranking of world no. 19.

The 32-year-old Malisse, who began playing pro in 1998, teamed up to play doubles with Knowles in his final tournament at the US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York, in August when they were ousted in the first round.

Gr�nefeld is a professional tennis player from Germany. She turned pro in April 2003. Gr�nefeld was coached and trained by Rafael Font de Mora in Scottsdale, Arizona until 2006. The 27-year-old teamed up with Knowles to win the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon in London, England, in 2009.

A host of other players will be on hand to participate in the Pro-Am doubles at Atlantis 1:30pm today.

Then on Saturday, they will participate in an exhibition at 2:30 pm, followed by the autograph and photograph sessions at 4pm.

“We’ve been fortunate every year to have a big time player and this year, we have Sam Querry and Lindsay Davenport, just to name a few,” Knowles said. “Sam is knocking on the door of becoming a big time tennis player and Lindsay has been a two-time world number one and four-time Grand slam champion. She is one of the all-time female greats.

“This is a great opportunity. You don’t get to see this type of talent on display that often. It’s part of the impetus as to why I continue to have the event. It’s to expose not only locals, but our local juniors who one day aspire to be great to see these types of players first hand.”

There is an admission fee but children are free. Proceeds from the event will go to a number of local charities that Knowles has earmarked.

“It’s real special. This is our 12th year. It’s amazing that so many years have passed,” Knowles said. “But it’s gotten better almost every year. We’ve gotten tremendous support from the local sponsors, from the community and from the ministries of Youth, Sports and Tourism.

“In order to have any event, you have to have the sponsorship and we’ve gotten that. We’ve also gotten the support from my ATP friends and players because you need the talent as well. So it’s been a good combination of getting the support from the sponsors and players to be able to provide and generate the income of the less fortunate.”