Off the heels of two impeccable weeks of tennis in Dubai, the emirate was dealt a major boost when it was confirmed as one of four cities set to play host to the inaugural edition of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), with world No2 Novak Djokovic representing Team Dubai.
The league is a unique concept that will bring high-quality team tennis competition to Asia and the Middle East, with Singapore, Mumbai and Bangkok announced as the other three host cities, and will be staged from November 27 to December 14, 2014.
A draft took place here yesterday at the Oberoi Hotel in Business Bay, revealing an impressive roster for the team set to represent Dubai, which besides Djokovic, includes former world No1 Caroline Wozniacki, ex-Davis Cup champion with Serbia, Janko Tipsarevic, Switzerland’s five-time Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis, three-time doubles Grand Slam winner Nenad Zimonjic, 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic and Arab No1 Malek Jaziri.
World No1 Rafael Nadal has been drafted to Team Mumbai while Team Singapore will be headlined by top WTA star Serena Williams.
Team owners – who are yet to be revealed – met up with Mahesh Bhupathi, the instigator and Managing Director of the IPTL, Morgan Menahem, the league’s CEO, Carlos Moya, a former world No1 who has been enlisted as a Vice President of Players Relations, among others, and a total sum of $23,975,000 was spent on the 28 drafted players.
The IPTL will follow a format that is tailored for TV, and will see 24 matches played in the four Asian cities. The action will start in Singapore, where six ties will be played over three days, before teams move on and head to the next city on the schedule.
With the league coinciding with the tennis calendar’s off season, many have speculated that it could disrupt the players’ preseason training but Bhupathi insists that won’t be the case.
“I think it will help if anything,” the Indian doubles sensation told Sport360 following the draft yesterday. “They get to play some matches. They get to train with a lot of their peers. A lot of us have to do our training separately but here, we have a bunch of players who can push each other, work harder, play some matches as practice and hopefully enjoy it and at the same time make some money.
“We’ve got some unbelievably strong teams. I think out of the 28 players that got drafted we have about 21 Grand Slam champions. We have 14 present and past No1s. It’s a pretty blockbuster field.”
Each team can have up to 10 players and owners still have the option to add more to their roster.
Notable absentees from the player field include Asia’s top male and female players, Kei Nishikori and recently crowned Australian Open champion Li Na.
“When we get a Chinese team and when we get a Japanese team, those are the big markets for those two (Nishikori and Li Na). They’re superstars in their countries and I’m sure we’ll work as hard as we did to bring the rest, we’ll bring them on board. Right now, those are the markets that we will tap for the next season,” explained Bhupathi.
Organisers insist it is not an exhibition league and that the level of competition is expected to be at the very highest.
Carlos Moya, who besides his role as one of the organisers, has been drafted to represent Team Bangkok alongside Andy Murray and Victoria Azarenka, says it’s impossible to have such a top-quality field and expect them not to compete.
“It’s a new thing in tennis. I wanted to be part of it. I’m very happy, very excited to join this wonderful team. This great idea. It’s a different platform. Innovation in tennis,” said Moya.
“Tennis is a very traditional sport and this is going to be a different format, a different thing. In Asia, where people are keen to have more tennis and we’re going to give them that opportunity to see all their favourite players.”
It remains unclear how much money owners or players will be making but Menahem says hefty rewards are guaranteed down the line. There had been rumours circulating that Nadal would be making around $1million a night but Bhupathi refused to comment on that saying: “We’re just focusing on the teams right now. Between the four teams they’ve spent $23.9million. obviously the big names will command a lot more because they deserve it. They bring in the fans, they bring in the bucks, they bring in the sponsors, they bring in the sponsors and we’re looking forward to it.”
Menahem added: “Both the team owners and players that are in right now, are what we call the ‘early adopters’.
“They’re the first ones to experience this new league. And we truly believe and I personally hope that it’s something that’s going to positively change the face of tennis.
“There will be some prize money at some point, there will be some bragging rights at some point, there will be all this. Whether it’s year one, year two, we really want to make an impact on, when you buy a ticket to come in the stands, you’re not going to see a round of funny tennis. You’re going to see some real tennis with teams competing against each other for something.”
The four teams contesting the IPTL…
Team Singapore
Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt, Patrick Rafter, Daniela Hantuchova, Bruno Soares and Nick Kyrgios
Team Bangkok
Andy Murray, Victoria Azarenka, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Carlos Moya, Daniel Nestor and Kirsten Flipkens
Team Mumbai
Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Ana Ivanovic, Gael Monfils, Rohan Bopanna, Sania Mirza and Fabrice Santoro
Team Dubai
Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Goran Ivanisevic, Janko Tipsarevic, Nenad Zimonjic, Martina Hingis and Malek Jaziri
SCHEDULE AND RULES
Format
Four teams: Bangkok, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore
Total number of ties: 24
Dates: Nov 27 – Dec 14, 2014
Awards Gala: Dec 14 in Dubai
Schedule
November 28-30: Singapore
December 2-4: Bangkok
December 7-9: Mumbai
December 11-14: Dubai
Each tie consists of:
1x Men’s Singles
1x Women’s Singles
1x Men’s Doubles
1x Mixed Doubles
1x Past Champions Singles
‘Home’ Team decides the order of play prior to each tie; the other ‘Away’ teams select right to determine the order of play through a coin toss; The ‘home’ team always plays the second tie of the day.
Rules
Five matches per team each consisting of one set with noadvantage scoring.
At five-games-all, a sevenpoint tiebreak will decide the match.
Each game won counts as one point for the team points total.
The team which wins the most games from all matches wins the tie receiving three points.
