Nick Kyrgios will donate £106 for every ace he hits over the next month in a bid to raise money for victims of the bushfires in Australia. The death toll in Australia continues to rise with the country dealing with the devastation of weeks of fires that have ripped through the country’s east coast, much of which is tinder-dry after three years of drought.
At least 15 people are now believed to have died, people remain missing and thousands have been evacuated from their homes.
Fuelled by searing temperatures and high winds, more than 200 fires are burning across the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, threatening several towns and more than 50,000 people were without power and some towns had no access to drinking water.
Eight people have been killed by wildfires in the eastern states of NSW and Victoria since Monday, and 18 are still missing, officials said on Thursday.
The ATP tennis season gets underway on Friday with 24 nations competing in the ATP Cup across three Australian cities.
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Kyrgios, Australia’s most high profile player, has been vocal about trying to find a way to help.
And the world number 30 has announced on Twitter that he will be donating money for every ace he hits over the Australian summer tennis season.
“I’m kicking off the support for those affected by the fires,” Kyrgios wrote.
“I’ll be donating $200 [£106] per ace that I hit across all the events I play this summer.”
Kyrgios was then backed by Alex de Minaur who responded to his team-mate by tweeting: “I like this I will go $250 [£133] per ace, just because I don’t think I’ll be hitting as many aces as you mate.”
John Millman, ranked 48 in the world, also promised to donate $100 [£53] for every ace he hits.
Kyrgios’ home city of Canberra is experiencing its worst air quality ever and residents have been told to stay indoors.
And he expressed his sadness at the devastating impact the fires have had.
“It’s pretty tragic what’s going on, especially with my hometown, Canberra, being under a bit of smoke, the most hazardous smoke in the world at the moment,” Kyrgios said.
“It’s obviously sad for everything that’s going on. There’s no rain predicted there for the next four months, so it doesn’t look like the fires are going to slow down anytime soon, which is pretty sad.”
Kyrgios will kick off his season when Australia take on Germany in the ATP Cup on Friday.
How to watch the ATP Cup on TV and online
Coverage of the ATP Cup will be shown on Amazon Prime Video.
Starting from January 3, Amazon show every televised court made available to the service, including the World Feed and two daily highlight shows.
Prime members in the UK and Ireland can watch live tennis coverage at no extra cost to a Prime membership. Customers can sign up to a Prime membership for just £7.99 per month, or £79 per year for an annual membership, following a 30-day free trial.
You can view the coverage across hundreds of devices on the Prime Video app for TVs, game consoles, set-top boxes, connected devices, mobile and online. Prime members can stream across three different devices on one account and can enjoy pause, rewind and fast-forward capabilities during Prime Video’s live tennis coverage.