Baselines and hemlines mix as top players turn on style

Leading women stage equivalent of Ryder Cup and parade on catwalk in innovative event to broaden game's appeal

Goodness knows what Billie Jean King would have made of it all, but the very modern nature of women's tennis, and the superstar status of its very modern participants, has been in full glorious show here these last few days.

The Collins Cup is Dublin's first major tennis tournament, outside the Davis Cup, but to dismiss it as such in one short phrase would be to sell drastically short what even to this forward-thinking capital is an audacious project. It all started on Wednesday with "a fashion spectacular" at the Royal Dublin Society Show Grounds and last night continued with the opening throes in the first three-day match between some of the finest women players in the United States and Europe.

The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati form the ridiculously strong US team in the event that is based upon the Ryder Cup while Daniela Hantuchova, Elena Bovina, Iva Majoli, Anna Kournikova and Barbara Schett are the Europeans looking to do what Sam Torrance's team did and belie not only the odds but also the world rankings.

There is, of course, a long way to go before this WTA-sanctioned event can ever occupy the same competitive high ground as the Ryder Cup, but to write it off as just another charity exhibition would be to devalue what has been a remarkable feat in attracting the household names of women's tennis to the uncharted courts of Ireland.

The promoter with the gumption, and indeed the estimated €3.5m (£2.25m) needed to stage such an event, is the Dublin-based Propriety Management, the sporting pedigree of whose managing director, Sean Collins, includes his acceptance for a number of tennis scholarships, one at the Nick Bolletieri Academy in Florida. Collins represented Ireland at junior and senior level and is not the only man on the organising committee to have tennis roots. Ulli Nganga, a former pupil at the LTA's school at Bisham Abbey, is the head of publicity. Nganga was ranked ninth in Britain in the early 1990s, his highest world ranking being No 390.

Collins' grand vision needed an equally grand charity and the Chernobyl Children's Project will receive any profits generated. How much this will be will depend on the numbers willing to pay the €90 entrance fee, but judging by the number of empty seats in the 5,000-seat auditorium for Wednesday's fashion show the magnificence of the entrants may well exceed the size of the cheque.

If the price of tickets proves to be one factor in keeping the punters away, then another that Collins and his promoters may have to look to was the failure to attract a pop band big enough to form the third part of the so-called "Trilogy". If supermodels and tennis players can be relied upon then it seems that popstars are not so easy to nail down. The Corrs were mentioned, as was Kylie Minogue, but ultimately Collins was left to whistle for his music extravaganza.

"The whole concept of The Trilogy was to bring the biggest stars in tennis, fashion and music to Dublin," Collins said. "We have done this with the tennis and fashion elements. When it became clear to us that the very top pop music act would not be available to come to Dublin at this time we decided, very reluctantly, to combine the fashion and music into one spectacular event."

Collins was right about the spectacular, with the supermodels Tyra Banks, Sophie Dahl, Aimee Mullins and Jodie Kidd joining Irish models showcasing the fabric talents of top Irish and international designers such as Escada, John Rocha, Louise Kennedy, and Maraid Whisker. There was also musical accompaniment by Anuna and a performance by The Basados Ballet Company.

The photographers were out in force and wherever there is a lens Kournikova usually follows. Together with Davenport, Schett, Hantuchova and Majoli, the Russian swapped the baseline for the catwalk. The modesty of Serena and Venus meant they looked on from the crowd, where they were joined by a bemused-looking Seles. The party, which by now included members of U2, moved on to the Dublin nightspot, Lillies Bordello.

And then came the tennis. As ever the appearance money being paid was a closely guarded secret, but with five of the world's top 10 in attendance it was obvious they were talking telephone numbers. Davenport, for one, was determined to give as good a show of herself on the court as she had at the show and hinted at America's love of a patriotic fight when laughing off a question over Serena's and Venus's commitment to the cause. "It's not in the nature of the Williamses to take their foot off the pedal," the 27-year-old said.

Davenport first learnt of the Collins Cup in July. "The only doubt I had was that the organisers might have difficulty in organising an event involving so many top class players but I was immediately very enthusiastic about the idea," the former world No 1 said. "Particularly as I had never been to Dublin, or Ireland before."

Neither had the Williams sisters, or any of the other players for that matter, but by last night – as Davenport faced Schett and Seles played Kournikova, with two doubles today and three singles proving the finale tomorrow – they were busy acclimatising to the carpets of Dublin. Whether the Irish would get used to them, however, would not be as straightforward.