International Premier Tennis League Results 2014: Dubai Scores and Winners
The International Premier Tennis League moved on to Dubai for its final leg on Thursday with the Indian Aces topping the standings.
With only three days of competition remaining the Aces are in pole position to take the trophy and kicked things off against the Singapore Slammers.
Read on for a full update of results from Dubai.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Saturday Recap
| Past Champions' Singles | Mark Philippoussis | 6-5 | Patrick Rafter |
| Men's Singles | Philipp Kohlschreiber | 6-2 | Tomas Berdych |
| Mixed Doubles | Kirsten Flipkens / Daniell Nestor | 6-1 | Nick Kyrgios / Daniela Hantuchova |
| Men's Doubles | Daniel Nestor / Philipp Kohlschreiber | 6-4 | Lleyton Hewitt / Bruno Soares |
| Women's Singles | Kirsten Flipkens | 6-3 | Daniela Hantuchova |
| Final Score | Manila Mavericks | 30-15 | Singapore Slammers |
| Women's Singles | Kristina Mladenovic | 5-6 | Ana Ivanovic |
| Mixed Doubles | Nenad Zimonjic / Kristina Mladenovic | 6-2 | Rohan Bopanna / Sania Mirza |
| Men's Doubles | Nenad Zimonjic / Goran Ivanisevic | 6-2 | Cedric Pioline / Gael Monfils |
| Past Champions' Singles | Goran Ivanisevic | 6-5 | Cedric Pioline |
| Men's Singles | Novak Djokovic | 6-0 | Gael Monfils |
| Final Score | UAE Royals | 29-15 | Indian Aces |
After the Indian Aces were confirmed as the first ever winners of the IPTL title, there was only pride at stake for each of the four teams on the final day of the competition. And it's fair to say, sides responded with varying degrees to the lack of pressure on the matches.
The Manila Mavericks were the undisputed stars of the final day, as they hammered the Singapore Slammers 30-15 in what was one of the most one-sided matches of the entire competition. That result means that the Mavericks finish the league in second place.
In truth, it looked as though it was going to be a close encounter, as Mark Philippoussis shaded the first leg of the match for the Mavericks via a shootout against Pat Rafter. But from that point on, the Mavericks dominated, as Philipp Kohlschreiber, Kirsten Flipkens and Daniel Nestor all contributed wins to an impressive overall victory.
Rafter, who's side finished the inaugural competition rock bottom, had high praise for the first running of the competition, per IPTLworld.com:
"The IPTL has been an unbelievable event. Let’s hope for really big things in the next ten years. I am excited for Mahesh.
As a team, we have worked very hard and I think done fairly well.
"
In the second game of the day, the Aces were unable to finish off their tournament in style after being crowned champions, as they were beaten 29-15 by the UAE Royals.
Ana Ivanovic got the Aces of to a winning start with a shootout victory over Kristina Mladenovic, but from that point on the Royals dominated, with Novak Djokovic putting the finishing touches to a fine win by beating Gael Monfils 6-0 in the last leg of the match.
The World No.1 is another player who had nothing but positive words to say about the IPTL format:
Indeed, while the Indian fans haven't turned out in swathes to watch the action live, this new found style is something that's certainly captured supporters' attentions across the globe. And if legendary figures from the games' past and present continue to lend their support to the competition, the IPTL will be around for a long time yet.
Friday Recap
The Indian Aces won the inaugural IPTL title after a wild second day of action in Dubai, beating Manila Mavericks 28-23 after the longest super shoot-out in the league's short history.
Singapore Slammers shocked UAE Royals in the second match of the day, winning 23-21 and giving Aces a five-point gap at the top of the standings. With just one matchday left on the schedule and the winners of Saturday's fixtures receiving four points, the Indian side can no longer be caught.
Sport360's Reem Abulleil confirmed the news:
Here are the full results of Friday's matches:
| Past Champions' Singles | Fabrice Santoro | 6-3 | Mark Philippoussis |
| Men's Singles | Gael Monfils | 6-2 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga |
| Mixed Doubles | Rohan Boppana/Sania Mirza | 6-4 | Daniel Nestor/Kirsten Flipkens |
| Women's Singles | Ana Ivanovic | 6-3 | Kirsten Flipkens |
| Men's Doubles | Rohan Boppana/Gael Monfils | 3-6 | Jo-Wilfred Tsonga/Daniel Nestor |
| Final Score | Indian Aces | 28-23 | Manila Mavericks |
| Past Champions' Singles | Patrick Rafter | 1-6 | Goran Ivanisevic |
| Men's Singles | Tomas Berdych | 6-5 | Novak Djokovic |
| Mixed Doubles | Bruno Soares/Daniela Hantuchova | 4-6 | Nenad Zimonjic/Kristina Mladenovic |
| Women's Singles | Daniela Hantuchova | 6-1 | Caroline Wozniacki |
| Men's Doubles | Lleyton Hewitt/Nick Kyrgios | 6-3 | Nenad Zimonjic/Marin Cilic |
| Final Score | Singapore Slammers | 23-21 | UAE Royals |
The Aces completely took apart Manila with four one-sided set wins before nearly giving up the match in a wild super shoot-out, as Daniel Nestor and Joe-Wilfried Tsonga bagged a 6-3 win over Rohan Bopanna and Gael Monfils and proceeded to win an incredible five games before the shoot-out came to an end.
Fabrice Santoro and Monfils had given Aces a big lead with two single wins and Bopanna and Sania Mirza edged Kirsten Flipkens and Nestor in the mixed doubles to put the favourites in the driver's seat.
Ana Ivanovic's win over Flipkens seemed to have locked up the tie, but the men's double and subsequent super shoot-out nearly saw Manila pull off the upset of the tournament. As shared by the IPTL's official Twitter feed, the Mavericks sounded as if they'll use said momentum to go out in style in Saturday's fixture:
The hometown Royals needed to beat Singapore Slammers to stop the Aces from winning the title, but the team's big guns performed poorly on Friday, with Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki both struggling.
Wozniacki was subbed out of her match against Daniela Hantuchova down 4-0, while the Joker suffered a surprise loss at the hands of Tomas Berdych. With their big stars not fulfilling their end of the bargain, Royals couldn't make up the deficit, losing the shoot-out 8-7 and the match 23-21.
The inaugural IPTL season will finish on Saturday, with champions Aces taking on Royals and Slammers going up against Mavericks. There may be little left to play for as far as the standings go, but as Aces' Mirza Sania told the event organisers, the league is about so much more than that:
The IPTL may just be an exhibition tour, but for many of the fans in India and Manila, it's one of the few chances they have to watch the biggest stars in the sport compete in person.
Add a healthy dose of legendary players to the mix, and every single match becomes even more enticing. The fans will no doubt turn up in numbers once again on Saturday, as the 2014 IPTL season comes to a close with one more day of top-level tennis.
Thursday Recap
| Women's Singles | Ana Ivanovic | 6-5 | Daniela Hantuchova |
| Past Champions' Singles | Fabrice Santoro | 6-3 | Pat Rafter |
| Mixed Doubles | Sania Mirza / Rohan Bopanna | 6-5 | Daniela Hantuchova / Bruno Soares |
| Men's Doubles | Gael Monfils / Rohan Bopanna | 6-3 | Lleyton Hewitt/ Bruno Soares |
| Men's Singles | Gael Monfils | 4-8 | Tomas Berdych |
| Final Score | Micromax Indian Aces | 28-24 | DBS Singapore Slammers |
| Women's Singles | Caroline Wozniacki | 6-2 | Kirsten Flipkens |
| Past Champions' Singles | Goran Ivanisevic | 5-6 | Mark Philippoussis |
| Men's Singles | Novak Djokovic | 5-6 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga |
| Mixed Doubles | Nenad Zimonjic / Kristina Mladenovic | 4-6 | Daniel Nestor / Kirsten Flipkens |
| Men's Doubles | Nenad Zimonjic / Marin Cilic | 6-5 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga / Daniel Nestor |
| Final Score | UAE Royals | 26-25 | Manila Mavericks |
The Indian Aces kept their tournament form up as they beat Singapore Slammers 28-24 on Day 1 in Dubai despite a spirited performance from Tomas Berdych late on.
A close opener between Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova went to a deciding game at 5-5, which the world No. 5 duly won to hand the Indian outfit an early, but narrow, lead.
Next up was a chance for the past champions to make an impact. Fabrice Santoro stretched the Indian Aces lead further with a 6-3 victory over Pat Rafter, although the Australian did well having been 5-0 down.
The trend continued with the doubles matches. Rohan Bopanna won twice, first with Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles—Hantuchova suffering her second 6-5 loss of the day—and then 6-3 with Gael Monfils.
However, Berdych stepped up to force a shootout against Monfils as he won the men's singles 6-3, per IPTL. The Frenchman eventually did enough, though, stopping the match at 4-8 to seal overall victory:
The result keeps the Indian Aces at the top of the current standings, and Monfils is adamant his team can see the competition out, per IPTL:
"We know there is pressure but we know what we have to do," he said. "That is to win. We will make it. All my team members are special, they give out a lot of positive energy and are all great."
Thursday's second encounter saw the tied-for-second UAE Royals and Manila Mavericks face off against each other, with both teams eager to take the initiative in the race to catch the Aces and the home side eventually prevailing 26-25.
Caroline Wozniacki got things off to a fine start for the Royals as she claimed the opener 6-2, but the Mavericks took three narrow victories in succession to tie things up at 20-20 with just the men's doubles remaining.
The two teams could still not be separated as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Daniel Nestor moved to 5-5 with Marin Cilic and Nenad Zimonjic, meaning the result had to be decided through a five-minute shootout.
It was eventually the Royals who prevailed in front of their home crowd, per Sport360, as they finished at 8-6 and won the match by a single game:
The Royals now sit just three points back from the Aces and are still in with a genuine chance of catching them in the final two days of competition.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
