Djokovic excited to lead UAE Royals at IPTL

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  • Enjoys the Emirates: Novak Djokovic says the UAE feels like home.

    It will be a new challenge for world No2 Novak Djokovic when he leads the UAE Royals in the inaugural season of the International Pre­mier Tennis League (IPTL), a tour­nament the Serbian superstar is eagerly looking forward to.

    While there will be a sense of familiarity for Djokovic, given there are two other players from his home country Serbia in the eight-member team that also includes Croatian Goran Ivanisevic, and the fact that he always plays well in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, a brand-new playing surface and venue awaits him when Dubai hosts the final leg of this year’s IPTL from December 11-13.

    It will be a brand new venue for tennis fans too in the Emirates, as the event will be played inside the magnificent Hamdan Sports Com­plex in the city.

    Announcing this at a press con­ference yesterday in Dubai, IPTL founder Mahesh Bhupathi and UAE Royals CEO Eric Gottschalk said the water in the Olympic-size swimming pool will be drained, and a tennis court will be created on a floating platform.

    Also introduced yesterday were the six partners of Ace Ventures – a group of businessmen bound by their common passion for tennis – who become the second Dubai-based owners of an IPTL fran­chisee, following the purchase of Singapore Slammers by Channel 2 Group owner Ajay Sethi and Indian cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar.

    Ace Ventures is formed by Sachin Gadoya, Sawan Ravani, Rahul Saharia, Kaushal Majithia, Chirag Vora and Kunal Bansal.

    Speaking at Wimbledon, Djoko­vic said: “I’ve been having my off seasons in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for the last five, six years. I love spending time in that part of the world. Obviously, I have won Dubai and Abu Dhabi tournaments many times in my career.

    “It says enough about how I feel in general spending time there. I just feel like home really. People are very kind. I look forward to going there and being part of a new con­cept, a new league that can change tennis in a way. Now that (Rafa) Nadal and (Andy) Murray are also a part of it, hopefully, it can have the success that was planned and was intended from the organisers.”

    The unique team tournament, based on the model of the highly successful Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament and brainchild of Indian doubles ace Bhupathi, will be launched towards the end of this year.

    The opening leg of the 2014 sea­son, comprising four teams, kicks off in Manila on November 28, before moving to Singapore, New Delhi and culminating in Dubai.

    Apart from Djokovic, the UAE Royals will comprise of French world No14 Richard Gasquet, Janko Tipsarevic, former Wimble­don champion Ivanisevic, former world No1s Caroline Wozniacki and Martina Hingis, doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic and top-ranked Arab player Malek Jaziri.

    Co-owner Ravani said the deci­sion to buy the team had more to do with the heart than their head, while Gadoya said they settled for the eventual Serbian-dominated team with the clear intention of winning the $1 million (Dh3.67m) prize money on offer in the first year, and were hopeful that a rise in valuation of the team in the future would justify their initial invest­ment.

    With Tennis Emirates sanc­tioning the Dubai leg and Dubai Sports Council backing the event, Ravani said he hoped the day will come soon when a local UAE talent makes it to the team.

    Ravani added: “We want to create opportunities for every possible kid in the UAE to get the chance to be part of the IPTL. But, obviously, we have to keep in touch with reality and see how things shape up as we go along.”

    Tickets for the tournament go on sale from today, and are available at www.ticketmaster.com, starting from as low as Dh75.

    **Note: Tickets were briefly available for sale on Ticketmaster but were removed by the organisers and should be available again soon in September.

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