Next month's Australian Open and its seven lead-up tennis tournaments will raise funds to help the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster, Tennis Australia (TA) said on Friday. TA said the tournaments, the first of which begins this weekend with the Hopman Cup in Perth, will be working with UNICEF to organise fundraising days at each of the events, with all money raised going to disaster relief. The confirmed death toll in the massive earthquake and tidal waves that slammed Indian Ocean shorelines last weekend climbed to over 120,000 on Friday.

The Australian Open, promoted as the grand slam of Asia/Pacific, is the first of the four grand slam tournaments, along with the French and US Opens and Wimbledon.

"The tennis community in Australia and the international players who are starting to arrive here to play in the lead-in tournaments to the Australian Open, have all been deeply shocked and touched by this tragedy," Geoff Pollard, President of Tennis Australia, said in a statement.

"With the backing and support of the international tennis bodies of the ITF, WTA and ATP, we will be working with UNICEF to look at ways to involve each of the tournaments in Australia over the next month in helping raise funds for the victims."

Pollard said each tournament has nominated gold coin days to provide a public focal point for their fundraising efforts.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005