The onset of winter brings in the blues, especially for tennis fans. Here’s why: every year, tennis season ends with the US Open in September, just as the red autumn leaves start falling, leaving fans with no choice but to wait till January for the Australian Open (which we can technically say is in the summer?!). On a more serious wait, it is a pretty long wait…
This year was slightly different. Don’t get me wrong; winter season stuck to it’s dates, but tennis season decided to visit us a little early; late November to be precise. And by us, I mean the Indian fans. It came in the form of the IPTL- International Premier Tennis League, to save us from at least some of those long cold winter days.
By including big players from all over the world and attracting fans in large numbers, like an angel sent from above, IPTL promises to make tennis in India much bigger.
Here’s an all-you-need-to-know about the IPTL:
What is the IPTL?
The International Premier Tennis League, or the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways (officially, according to sponsorship agreements), is a tennis league that was founded and is presided over by Mahesh Bhupati in 2013, but launched in November 2014, with its first edition that kicked off in India.
It is a one-of-a-kind tournament that brings to the fore current champions, all-time legends and upcoming players (basically for a treat for anyone who walks talks and sleeps tennis). It’s the premier city-based professional tennis league based in Asia in four cities: New Delhi, Manila, Singapore and Dubai.
The first season took place from 28th November to 13th December.
The Format
The format of the league is a basic round robin one; every team plays every other team in a league and the team with most points wins. The format of the matches themselves, though, is a little complicated at first. So let me break it down for you:
Each match consists of 5 sets. These 5 sets are played in different pair-ups, as in, there is one set of each of the following: Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Men’s Legends Doubles.
Each set is played normally, first to 6 games wins the set and that particular contest. However, in the incident of a tie at 5-all, there is a Shoot Out for 5 minutes (this replies the traditional 7 point tie-breaker). Each individual game won adds one point to the team total (regardless of who bagged the overall set).
The match winner is decided by the total number of games. Hence, the team that has more points, as in won more games, wins, regardless of if they won more number of pair-ups or not. If there is a tie after all 5 sets, a Super Shoot Out (a 7 minute Shoot Out) decides the winner.
Fairly simply, it can be looked at as one tennis match, being played by different team members passing the baton onto each other. The only difference; the winner is the one who has won most number of games and not sets (which is perhaps more fair).
The final set however, will be played until the team leading the overall points tally wins the set as well.
Each win fetches a team 4 points, while each loss fetches 2 points, if the team won 20 or more game points, 1 if it won 10 or more, and 0 if it won less than 10. The team with the most points, wins the league!
The Teams and the Players
There are four teams:
- The Micromax Indian Aces
Players: Roger Federer, Ana Ivanovic, Pete Sampras, Gael Monfils, Fabrice Santoro and India’s very own Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna.
Owner: Micromax
- The Manila Mavericks
Players: Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kirsten Flipkens, Daniel Nestor, Carlos Moya and Treat Huey.
Owner: Francis Lumen, CEO, All Youth Channels
The Bangkok franchise was moved to Manila, Philippines due to political unrest in Thailand.
- The DBS Singapore Slammers
Players: Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt, Nick Kyrgios, Daniela Hantuchova, Bruno Soares and Patrick Rafter.
Owners: Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar and international business executives Kishan Gehlot, Shashi Shetty and Ajay Sethi.
- The Musafir.com UAE Royals
Players for the Royals are: Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Malek Jaziri, Nenad Zimonjic, Goran Ivanisevic, Kristina Mladenovic and Marin Cilic.
Owner: Sachin Gadoya, co-founder of Musafir.com, along with Sawan Ravani, Rahul Saharia, Kaushal Majithia, Chirag Vora and Kunal Bansal.
IPTL 2014
This year, to the absolute delight of the Indian fans, the Indian Aces won the title!
The final standings were as follows:
- Micromax Indian Aces, 39 points
- Musafir.com UAE Royals, 37 points
- Manila Mavericks, 35 points
- DBS Singapore Slammers, 24 points
A total of 24 matches were played across the 4 legs.
The pleasure of watching Federer, Djokovic and Sharapova live was probably much much bigger for most people than the Indian aces winning the premier title. For Sania Mirza, biggest was probably playing on the same court, on the same side of the net, alongside the one, the only, The Roger Federer!
Without a minuscule of a doubt we can say that the IPTL kicked off with a bang, extending the tennis season (or summoning it early) and fulfilling the dreams of many- fans and players alike. ITPL 2014, is set on the track of making tennis big in India, and hopefully, IPTL 2015 (and other future seasons in coming years) will make it bigger!
