As the countdown to Saturday’s JP Morgan Chase Tennis Challenge at the Naples Bath & Tennis Club continues, the fourth player to participate in the charity exhibition was confirmed on Sunday. Jana Novotna, the 34-year-old from the Czech Republic who claimed 24 singles titles between 1986 and 1999, will join in for doubles. As the countdown to Saturday’s JP Morgan Chase Tennis Challenge at the Naples Bath & Tennis Club continues, the fourth player to participate in the charity exhibition was confirmed on Sunday.
Jana Novotna, the 34-year-old from the Czech Republic who claimed 24 singles titles between 1986 and 1999, will join in for doubles.
Novotna currently is retired from active tennis. She wasn’t able to recover from injuries she sustained during the 1999 French Open.
In the doubles, Novotna will hook up with Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Monica Seles in the afternoon affair benefiting the OWL Foundation started by Oracene Price, the mother of the world’s No. 1 and No. 2-ranked Williams sisters.
Serena Williams will go against Seles in the singles exhbition that will lead up to the doubles.
Novotna, who turned professional on Feb. 26, 1987, is perhaps best known for her championship run in the 1998 Wimbledon singles. She triumphed in the finals over Nathalie Tauziat 6-4, 7-6.
Novotna reached the Wimbledon finals two other times, bowing in 1997 to Martina Hingis 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in 1997 and losing to Steffi Graf 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 in 1993.
A portion of the proceeds of Saturday’s festivities will go to the Education Foundation of Collier County.
A temporary stadium capable of seating 4,000 is to be erected this week at the NBTC on Airport-Pulling Road.
In addition to morning clinics and the afternoon exhibitions, there will be an evening gala at the Naples Bath & Tennis Club headling entertainer Roberta Flack.
Tickets for the JP Morgan Chase Tennis Challenge are behind handled by Ticketmaster at 239-334-3309.