Mahesh Bhupathi hopes IPTL proves successful in Dubai

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  • Progress: IPTL founder Mahesh Bhupathi (r) seeks more success.

    Mahesh Bhupathi, the founder of the IPTL, says the success of the league in its first season has drawn interest from new cities to create franchises for next year, but that first he hopes they can finish with a bang in Dubai this weekend.

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    The IPTL will be held at the immaculate Dh1.1billion Hamdan Sports Complex, where a court has been built on top of the Olympic pool, but some concerns have risen over whether Dubai will sellout the way the other three venues in Manila, Singapore and New Delhi have.

    The HSC is a phenomenal venue, but it has struggled to draw in huge crowds in the past due to its remote location, on the Bypass Road.

    But Bhupathi is confident the people will show up to watch some of the best players who have ever picked up a tennis racquet compete in the team format.

    “There have been challenges with the venue being new and the distance from the city and so forth but I’ve been told when I landed this morning that over 22,000 tickets have been sold so we’re excited. Hopefully they’ll come in numbers,” said Bhupathi.

    Asked how he expects the league to grow in 2015, he added: “Our region is already defined – Far East, Middle East… there is interest now after people have seen the way the crowds have accepted the format, the players have accepted the format so hopefully by the middle of January we’ll be able to announce the next franchise.

    “We’ve always said that our goal is to reach eight by 2020. So we just have to take a call internally on how we plan to achieve that.”

    The Indian doubles star tipped the UAE Royals to take the title this weekend: “I think I would have to pick the Royals because they’re coming home now. They’ve got three matches at home.

    "They’ve got Novak (Djokovic) and Caroline (Wozniacki) and they’ve got a pretty hard-hitting line-up backed up by Marin Cilic and the rest.

    "I think we’re going to try and structure the match-ups ideally if we can to have the top two teams playing for the title on the last day. We’re working on that.”

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