Rock ‘n roll tennis is back
Indian Aces start Dubai leg of IPTL with a win.
The Micromax Indian Aces were joined by the Philippine Mavericks as winners on the opening day of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) at the Dubai Tennis Stadium yesterday.
The Micromax Indian Aces powered their way to a swift 25-18 win over Legendari Japan Warriors, while the Mavericks found a hero in big-serving Ivo Karlovic who stunned the home team’s marquee player Roger Federer to close out a 26-24 win against the Obi UAE Royals.
Going into the fifth and final match — the men’s singles between Federer and Karlovic — it was the lanky Karlovic who broke the former world number one in the eighth game to power his way to a 6-4 win and a decisive 26-24 verdict in favour of the Philippine Mavericks.
“We knew it would be a tough one after we were tied at 20-20 as we all know what sort of serve Ivo [Karlovic] has,” UAE Royals coach JL De Jager said. “But it was still a high level of tennis and we are proud as a team,” he added.
No hiccups
There were no such hiccups by the defending champions from India as they charged to their seventh win in eight encounters this season.
Coming in for the penultimate leg of this five-team competition with the best record of six wins from seven, the Indian Aces stuttered at the start when Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna went down 4-6, but the defending champions went on improving as the game progressed.
Playing for the first time together, Kirsten Flipkens and Pierre-Hugues Herbert managed the only break of the match in the third game on Mirza’s serve to give the Japanese the lead at 6-4.
However, after that initial euphoria it turned out to be a rather one-sided encounter with Agnieszka Radwanska breezing past Mirjana LucicBaroni 6-1 to help the Indians lead for the first time 10-7.
Former Dubai champion Fabrice Santoro who doubles up as coach cum captain for the Indian Aces then made short work of Thomas Enqvist 6-0.
The high point of the evening came in the men’s doubles when Bopanna and Ivan Dodig teamed up to win 6-5 against Leander Paes and Herbert.
Following a break on Paes’ serve in the fourth to lead 3-1, Dodig and Bopanna suddenly had to put up a gritty fight put
up by the Indo-French pair as they broke back to send the match into a shoot-out that the Indian Aces won 7-2 to give their team an overall lead of 2212 and only the last men’s singles to be played.
In the fifth and final match, Philipp Kohlscreiber of the Warriors notched up a swift 6-3 win over Bernard Tomic, who was playing his first match of the IPTL in place of marquee player Rafael Nadal.
The match, though inconsequential, witnessed some exciting moments as Kohlscreiber registered only his second win against Australia’s top-ranked player with a 25-18 result for the Warriors. However, that could not stop the Indian Aces from their seventh win from eight.
Due to the odd number of teams in the league this year, the Legendari Japan Warriors will get an off day today.
The highlight of the evening will be the clash between Roger Federer and Andy Murray that will bring down the curtains on Day Two of the Dubai round of the IPTL.