IPTL 2016 Results: Saturday Tennis Scores, Winners and Latest Hyderabad Schedule
The OUE Singapore Slammers beat the Japan Warriors 30-20 in the morning session at the 2016 International Premier Tennis League in Hyderabad, India, on Saturday to reach the final.
Singapore will now face India Aces, who had already booked their place in the finale. The Aces were still in action on Saturday but were beaten 24-20 by the UAE Royals, with Tomas Berdych and Thomas Johansson among those who enjoyed wins during the afternoon session.
Earlier, Carlos Moya and Kiki Bertens got things started for the Slammers, before Nick Kyrgios helped inspire an emphatic victory in the men's doubles. Marcos Baghdatis then survived a thriller against Prajnesh Gunneswaran, winning 6-5 to confirm the result for the Slammers.
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Here's are all the scores and winners from Saturday's matches, per the tournament's official Twitter:
The day began with Moya facing Marat Safin in the legends' singles match. It was the former who sauntered into a 3-1 then 4-2 lead.
Moya then dropped a beautiful lob over Safin to take control of the seventh game and leave the latter flustered at the timeout. Safin regained some composure to hold serve, but he couldn't stop Moya from moving to within a game of the first set. The Spaniard didn't turn the opportunity down and promptly served for the set.
Safin had boomed a quartet of aces but couldn't overcome six unforced errors and an inability to break the Moya serve.
One win soon became two for the Slammers when Bertens saw off Jelena Jankovic in some style. Playing on her birthday, 25-year-old Bertens took the set with a strong service game that included five aces.
Bertens then joined Marcelo Melo in the mixed doubles against Jankovic and Jean-Julien Rojer. A shootout was eventually needed to separate both pairs with the score deadlocked at 5-5.
Bertens was again influential, as she helped the Slammers claim the set 6-5.
Such an exciting encounter was a good precursor for the men's doubles pitting Kyrgios and Melo against Warriors duo Fernando Verdasco and Rojer.
It was Kyrgios and Melo who made the fast start, winning the first three games of the set. Kyrgios was carrying the fight, staying powerful on serve and playing a particularly cute drop shot to leave Verdasco and Rojer snatching at air.
The lopsided score prompted the Warriors to make a change, per the tournament's Twitter:
Shuffling the pack didn't do much for the Warriors, though, as they soon found themselves trailing 5-2. Kyrgios was turning on the style, while the Warriors couldn't force the issue by breaking serve.
A 6-3 win felt like an inevitability for the Slammers, who had dominated every set since play began.
The pattern soon changed, though, when Baghdatis was pushed all the way by Gunneswaran. Baghdatis went 2-1 down after Gunneswaran had forced a break.
The former soon battled back with a break of his own, as the Warriors suffered a failure on the power point. But the exchange then took another turn:
Debutant Gunneswaran was catching the eye, but Baghdatis was far from finished. He broke serve again to reduce the deficit to 4-3 before serving to even things at four games apiece.
A shootout looked inevitable and soon followed. Baghdatis completed his comeback to take the set 6-5.
The afternoon match began with Mark Philippoussis stumbling to a heavy defeat against Johansson of the UAE Royals. Johansson won 6-2 after smashing four aces and breaking serve three times.
The emphatic win didn't give the Royals the edge for long, though. Kirsten Flipkens evened things up for the Aces after beating Ana Ivanovic 6-3. Flipkens won a power point while forcing three breaks to overwhelm her opponent.
Next up was the mixed doubles featuring Ivanovic and Daniel Nestor against Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza. Ivanovic and Nestor broke serve several times before easing to a 6-3 win.
The Aces soon returned the favour after claiming the men's doubles by the same score. Bopanna and Ivan Dodig did the damage against Nestor and Pablo Cuevas.
Their win left Dodig facing Berdych for the match. The former kept pace with Berdych and trailed just 2-1 at the first timeout. Dodig held serve again after the restart to make it 2-2, as neither player could force the break they craved.
Another hold from Dodig forced things to 3-3. The Croatian was producing some superb shots, notably a deft backhand that baffled Berdych in the sixth game.
His ingenuity was undone, though, when Berdych won a power point that left him serving for the match. He closed out the set to give the Royals a morale-boosting win.
Attention will now turn to the final, where the Slammers have the momentum after Saturday, although the Aces probably held something in reserve after having already reached the summit match.
All statistics courtesy of the IPTL official site Match Centre.
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