International Premier Tennis League 2014: Schedule, Format and Live Stream Info

The inaugural edition of the International Premier Tennis League is to kick off in Manila this week, with the likes of Andy Murray, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic leading a star-studded cast list for the new event.

With the tournament set to take place over the course of three weeks across four Asian cities, the eyes of the tennis world will be on an event which could potentially dramatically change the tennis calendar should it take off.

Large paychecks are on offer to those competing, and the Telegraph's Simon Briggs reported earlier this year on the challenges the new event poses to the tennis world.

The schedule for the four stages of the 2014 edition is as follows:

Location	Dates
Manila	November 28, 29, 30
Singapore	December 2, 3, 4
India	December 6, 7, 8
Dubai	December 11, 12, 13

This week the competition heads to Manila for its opening blows, with the three-day stage planned as shown below. The players will then rest for just one day before the high-intensity action resumes in Singapore next Tuesday:

Date	Time (GMT/ET)	Match
28 November 2014	08.00am/03.00am	Micromax Indian Aces vs Singapore Slammers
	11.30am/06.30am	Manila Mavericks vs UAE Royals
29 November 2014	08.00am/03.00am	UAE Royals vs Singapore Slammers
	11.30am/06.30am	Manila Mavericks vs Micromax Indian Aces
30 November 2014	08.00am/03.00am	UAE Royals vs Micromax Indian Aces
	11.30am/06.30am	Manila Mavericks vs Singapore Slammers

Format

Each match in the competition will consist of five sets with the teams playing the sets in the following format:

Men's Singles
Women's Singles
Mixed Doubles
Men’s Doubles
Men’s Legends Singles

Each set will feature a standard race to six games, and the winner will add one point to his/her team's respective match score.

Should any set reach a score of five-all, a four-minute shootout will determine the set winner.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

The winning team with the most points at the end of the five sets receives four points in the tournament league table. Should the match scores be level after five sets, a seven-minute "Super Shootout" will be played in the format of a traditional tiebreak to decide which team takes the four points.

As per the official rules, for the losing team:

A team that wins more than 20 game points wins 2 points
A team that wins more than 10 game points wins 1 point
A team that wins less than 10 game points in total gets 0 points

Each team will play three matches at each of the four venues, each playing twelve matches in total. A full guide to the tournament's format and rules can be found on the official website.

According to the organisers, the competition's quick-fire format and star backing has the potential to revolutionise tennis and they have been quick to ramp up the volume on social media:

As a way to speed up the clashes, a clock will count down 20 seconds between points, while there will be no advantage scoring within games. Any game which reaches deuce will then be sudden death.

Team Lineups

At the time of writing, the team lineups for the 2014 International Premier Tennis League will be as follows, with Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic leading their respective teams:

MANILA MAVERICKS	Andy Murray	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga	Kirsten Flipkens	Daniel Nestor	Carlos Moya	Maria Sharapova	Treat Huey
SINGAPORE SLAMMERS	Serena Williams	Andre Agassi	Tomas Berdych	Lleyton Hewitt	Nick Kyrgios	Daniela Hantuchova	Bruno Soares	Pat Rafter
MICROMAX INDIAN ACES	Roger Federer	Pete Sampras	Gael Monfils	Ana Ivanovic	Sania Mirza	Rohan Bopanna	Fabrice Santoro
UAE ROYALS	Novak Djokovic	Caroline Wozniacki	Malek Jaziri	Nenad Zimonjic	Goran Ivanisovic	Eugenie Bouchard	Marin Cilic

Many of the stars involved have taken to Twitter over recent days to help raise publicity ahead of the event, including Australia's rising young star Nick Kyrgios:

Live Stream Information

The inaugural International Premier Tennis League will be broadcast on Sky Sports 3 in the United Kingdom, with live streaming available to subscribers via the mobile app or SkyGo website.