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IPTL SINGAPORE - THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER IP: 203.116.178.87 Posted on December 4, 2014 at 08:08:00 PM by David Barnes
IPTL 2014 - SINGAPORE
THURSDAY 4 DECEMBER
Seeing the drawsheet for this afternoon's play, those of us with long memories, like Craig Willis, the on-court announcer, who possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of tennis with the added benefit of almost instant recall, were taken back to 1999 and the Davis Cup final in Nice between France and Australia. Today Cedric Pioline, just arrived from la belle France, played Mark Philippoussis in the Legends 'set' here in Singapore, just as the two of them had squared up to each other fifteen years ago as 'active' players in the Davis Cup, when the Australian, beating the Frenchman in the fourth rubber of the tie, secured the trophy for his country. Today's tie also resulted in an Australian win (6-4 to the big-serving Philippoussis).
Whether memories of matches long ago much occupy the thoughts of the players on occasions such as today's is a moot point, but with legends such as Lleyton Hewitt (who lost both his singles matches in that famous Aussie 1999 victory, but by 2002 had won both Wimbledon and the US Open and become the youngest world men's no. 1 in the history of the sport at the age of just 20), Andre Agassi (whom Hewitt played eight times on the ATP Tour back in the day - between them they won 90 titles and amassed over $50million in prize money), not to mention Pete Sampras and Roger Federer who will join forces for the Indian leg of the tournament, wafting around the tournament venue, there are a lot of memories floating around with them.
Roger Rasheed, who coached Hewitt before moving on to Monfils and Tsonga - he may thus be watching the IPTL with more than a passing interest - and latterly Grigor Dmitrov, said once of Hewitt; "When they cut the umbilical cord, Lleyton screamed, 'Put up the net, let's play'". Maybe the Bulgarian will feature in next year's edition of the IPTL roadshow.
Caroline Wozniacki popped in to the Press Room this afternoon too, for the same sort of 'meet my sponsor' session as did Serena Williams yesterday. What a contrast in styles - the Danish girl shook everybody's hand, thanked them all for coming, asked questions of the children present, smiled non-stop and with conviction, and managed to give the impression that she wasn't bored to tears. La Williams may have won four times as much prize money as Caroline over the years, and be the reigning world number 1, but I know which of them I'd rather be stuck in a lift with.
Back on court, the Manila Mavericks continued to improve; they beat the Indian Aces 25-20 overall in the afternoon session, building on the initial Philippoussis victory. Although Kirsten Flipkens lost to Ana Ivanovic 6-2, she regrouped in the mixed doubles with Daniel Nestor, to beat the in-form opposition of Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza, who had been sweeping all before them, by the same margin, and Treat Huey and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, adhering to the maxim that 'imitation is the sincerest form of flattery', did likewise against Bopanna and Monfils.
Monfils beat his compatriot Tsonga 6-5 in the last set of the afternoon, paving the way for the evening's match-up between the Singapore Slammers and the UAE Royals. The former seem to have all the stars and most of the fire power in Agassi, Berdych, Hantuchova, Hewitt, Kyrgios, La Williams, et al, but the Royals' new secret weapon, in the shape of the delectable Caroline Wozniacki, joined her teammates today, and they are still within striking distance of the tournament leaders, the Indian Aces, despite the resurgent Manila Mavericks.
With such an embarrassment of riches, Slammers coach Josh Eagle, looking to avenge his 28-22 loss when the teams met in Manila, was able to leave both Hantuchova and Agassi on the bench. Serena opened against Caroline ("good friends off the court", as the commentator reminded us, apropos of nothing in particular), but was broken early, only breaking back to level the score at 5-5, forcing a five-minute shoot-out, which she won with a finely judged smash off a wondrously deep exploratory forehand. She had made 14 winners to Wozniacki's six, the same number of unforced errors to her opponent's seven, but the set was a story of champion-like determination and timing. Statistics sometimes fail to tell the whole story.
Serena and Tomas Berdych next beat Nenad Zimonjic and Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, in a pulsatingly exciting set of mixed doubles play, but the tables were turned in the next set, that old showman Goran Ivanisevic edging past Pat Rafter by the same margin. The crowd, making up in enthusiasm what it lacked in numbers (the stadium was only half-full for this final evening of the second leg) was treated to an energetic slugfest between Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic next; Berdych played an especially compelling service game to go 5-4 up, then an equally impressive counterpunching game, concluding with a 152 mph cross-court forehand 'like a missile coming off the racket", to quote Craig Willis. The evening, and the Singapore leg, ended with a terrific doubles set; on-fire Aussie powerhouses Nick Kyrgios and Lleyton Hewitt took on Nenad Zimonjic and Marin Cilic, and narrowly lost (4-6 for the 'pure' set, but they won the subsequent 'sudden death' game to make it 5-6 and avoid a super shoot-out). The old and the new in Aussie tennis make a great combination, and the home crowd left in ebullient mood, the Singapore Slammers winning 27-25 on the night (although they trail, in the overall scoreline, with 14 points, behind the Mavericks and Royals on 17 each, and the Aces leading the pack with 20).
Mahesh Bhupathi gave another upbeat press conference during the day, saying how wonderful everything was in the IPTL camp. "The tennis has been extremely competitive. I'm glad we picked the city [Singapore]. He claims to have four other cities queuing up to get a slice of the action, and is looking to expand the format in years to come. "We've carved out our space in the tennis calendar and we're very happy about it", he added. "I've got a line of all kinds of people waiting outside my door". They'll be lucky to find him behind it, such is the speed with which his particular - and some might say peculiar - sporting and financial bandwagon is rolling just at the moment.
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