Tennis star David Ferrer visited Ronald McDonald House in Auckland yesterday to sign a gold leaf Moet & Chandon jeraboam worth $20,000 that will be auctioned to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Ferrer was given a tour of the facilities and met Kiwi families staying at Ronald McDonald House, before signing the bottle.

"We were so grateful to have David make the time to come out and visit our house today before his big week ahead," Ronald McDonald House Charities chief executive Wayne Howett said. "Our families were all very excited to have the chance to meet an international tennis star. It was a pleasure having him."

Spanish tennis player David Ferrer meets Wayne Howett.
Spanish tennis player David Ferrer meets Wayne Howett.

Ferrer joined fellow men's tennis stars including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, John Isner, Kevin Anderson and Kiwi Finn Tearney at the men's players party last night at Odettes eatery hosted by Moet and Chandon.

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Tough timing

Despite several of the ASB Classic day sessions running late last week, tournament director Karl Budge says he has no plan to push session times out, saying it was unfortunate that things had gone overtime and it was "very rare that three matches would go that long".

Although an added bonus for those able to stay for the three setters, night session ticket holders will be hoping the men's games keep more to schedule this week.

Hasty retreat

A first round knockout from the ASB Classic and a chance to play in Sydney ahead of the Australian Open saw Ana Ivanovic beat a hasty exit from the ASB Classic last week, cancelling a planned appearance at Juliette Hogan's lunch event on Friday where the designer was supposed to be presenting Ivanovic with a one-off designed dress.

The top-20 player left New Zealand part way through the week but will still be flashing the $20,000 Naveya & Sloane diamond ring which she takes with her -- a gift from the designer and Moet and Chandon.

Cooling off in summer

World number 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has been spotted cooling off in Auckland, taking a private launch to Waiheke to spend a day fishing, followed by a visit to Cable Bay.

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Tsonga spent yesterday afternoon at the Sky Tower's newest eatery Sky Cafe, to create his own icecream flavour.

The star was treated to a 360 degree view of Auckland and a selection of Kapiti icecream before being shown how to design his own flavour - a combination of three Kapiti flavours including triple chocolate, affogato, fig and honey topped with a caramel chocolate bar, sugar coated chocolate and fudge.

It seems the sponsors are pulling out all the stops to try and get Tsonga to return to the tournament in the future.

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