Australia's top-ranked men's hope at the tournament,Nick Kyrgios,kicked off the donations at the start of the month,pledging $200 for every ace he hit across the summer. He was soon joined by other Australian players.

World No.1 Ash Barty promised her prizemoney from the Brisbane International on top of a donation she had already made last year,and international players also pledged monetary support.

A full house packed Rod Laver Arena last week for the Australian Open's"Rally for Relief"to aid bushfire charities,featuring stars including Roger Federer,Rafael Nadal,Serena Williams,Novak Djokovic,Caroline Wozniacki,Stefanos Tsitsipas,Kyrgios and Zverev.

Federer and Nadal also combined to make a $250,000 donation.

Before his pledge on Tuesday night,Zverev made heavy work at times of his first-round victory over world No.77 Cecchinato but was just pleased to be back in the winners'circle after losing his first three matches of the season at the ATP Cup.

"I didn't play well at the ATP Cup,"he said."Everybody saw that. I was struggling a lot with my serve,I was struggling a lot with my groundstrokes. I think I was much more stable than I was there.

"This is a positive for me. Obviously there's a lot still to build. I think this is already getting better. So hopefully I can still get better in the next few days,maybe weeks."

Reuters