International Premier Tennis League 2: Aces trump Warriors sans Nadal
Singapore Slammers’ Nick Kyrgios returns to Edouard Roger-Vasselin of the Philippine Mavericks in their IPTL match in New Delhi on Friday. The Slammers won 30-22. — Biplab Banerjee
Indian Aces kept their winning run intact at home even though star player Rafael Nadal was missing on Day 2 of the International Premier Tennis League at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here on Friday, breezing past Japan Warriors 26-21.
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna won the mixed doubles 6-4 against Mirjana Lucic and Pierre-Hugues Herbert for their straight sixth win in the event.
The women’s singles was a one sided affair with world no. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska outclassing Kurumi Nara 6-2 in 22 minutes before Leander Paes and Herbert pipped home boys Bopanna and Ivan Dogig 6-5 (7-5) in the men’s doubles.
Aces captain Fabrice Santoro raced to 4-0 in no time against Thomas Enqvist before pocketing the men’s legends 6-3 and though the men’s singles went Japan’s way after Herbert beat Phillip Kohlschreiber 6-3, it was too little too late.
Earlier, it was so near yet so far for the Philippine Mavericks as they slumped to a second defeat in as many days.
The Mavericks lost 22-30 to Singapore Slammers with three matches going into shoot-outs, the winners also climbing to second on the leaderboard.
Former world no. 1 Carlos Moya, turning out for the Slammers returned victorious against Mavericks coach-player Mark Philippoussis 6-4 in the men’s legends singles.
Dustin Brown and Karolina Pliskova pipped Treat Huey and Jarmila Gajdosova 6-5 in the mixed doubles for the Slammers. The set went with serve as the teams were 5-5 before the Slammers had last laugh with a 7-2 result in 31 minutes.
In the women’s singles, Belinda Bencic shrugged off a slow start to wrap up the game in favour of the Slammers beating Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3.
“Happy to win as I was slow to pick up the speed. It was difficult to play and win in one set only. Winning the powerpoint was the turning point of my game,” world number 14 Bencic said.
It was Slammers’ day and it was proved again when Mavericks lost the fourth set in a shoot-out, Nick Kyrgios and Marcelo Melo sweating it out to beat Huey and Eduard Roger-Vasseline 6-5 (7-5) in the men’s doubles.
The shoot-out was also a close affair as the Slammers enjoyed a slim lead at 3-2 but a powerpoint decision in their favour was enough for them to clinch the set.
Tennis ‘bad boy’ Kyrgios returned for the men’s singles and made sure that he went with the all-win record on the day, emerging a 6-5 (7-5) winner over Roger-Vesselin.
“My experience of IPTL has been great so far,” said Kyrgios.
