British star Andy Murray got on the scoresheet as the stars of men's tennis united for a charity football match to raise funds for earthquake-devastated Japan.
World top two Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the latter of whom captained the ATP World Tour Allstars, were among 15 top tennis players to swap the little yellow balls for a bigger white one while in Miami for the Sony Ericsson Open.
The Allstars fell 4-2 to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, a second-tier team in the United States, as goals from Murray and Marcos Baghdatis were not enough to give the tennis boys victory in a shortened match played at a relaxed tempo.
The result had little meaning, of course, compared to the funds raised for the American Red Cross' relief efforts in Japan, where the death toll from the recent earthquake and subsequent tsunami crisis is expected to climb into the tens of thousands.
While Murray's goal could see him earn a call up for Scotland's Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, there is no danger of Nadal supplanting the likes of Xavi and Andres Iniesta in the World Cup-winning Spain football team - the tennis No. 1 started on the bench for the Allstars along with countrymen David Ferrer and Fernando Verdasco.
It was a special evening for Japan's No. 1 Kei Nishikori, who took the field with Djokovic and Murray in the Allstars starting team. The match was followed by a gala dinner which also sought to raise funds for the relief work.
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