ROME – On Sunday, the Novak Djokovic Foundation hosted a charity gala dinner at the Lantern, via Tomacelli, in Rome to raise funds by auctioning off Djokovic’s Australian Open winning racket.

 The gala was the final event of the PL Open International: an international tennis tournament with a prize pool of 25,000 dollars, played from May 28 to June 3 at the Forum Sport Centre facilities in Rome and chaired by Petr Losev.

 The title winner was Portugal's Gonçalo Oliveira, who beat Italy's Luca Potenza in the final. The tournament's partners were the Novak Djokovic Foundation and the Peter Pan Association, to which the proceeds of the evening will be donated.

 The exclusive dinner gala was attended by Jelena Djokovic, wife of the Serbian champion, and the international director of the Novak Djokovic Foundation Maja Jovanovic, journalist Stefano Meloccaro, comedian Marco Capretti and presenter Elena Ramognino.

 Also present were the president of the Peter Pan Foundation, Roberto Mainiero and Marco Colasanti, president of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.

 During the dinner, the tennis kit and racket with which Djokovic triumphed at the recent Australian Open were auctioned off. Only the 130 exclusive guests of the gala dinner had access to the physical auction, with the wider auction running online.

 All proceeds from the auction will go towards improving early childhood education through the Novak Djokovic Foundation. “Our Foundation,” says Maja Kremic, national director of the organisation, “aims to bring joy and hope into the lives of many children.”

 The auction took place in two sessions: the first, physical, during the gala dinner, where the highest bid reached 11,500 euros. Following this, this price became the new auction base for the digital continuation of the event. The online auction will end on 8 June.

 eb