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IPTL 2016 - Thursday 8 December IP: 203.116.178.87 Posted on December 8, 2016 at 07:05:20 PM by David Barnes
IPTL 2016 - Thursday 8 December
It was perhaps unfortunate that the Australian Open tournament chose today to announce the fact that 99 of the top 100 players (Victoria Azarenka is pregnant and will miss the event) will be taking part in 2017, given the paucity of big names here at the IPTL. Nevertheless at a press conference before the afternoon session Mahesh Bhupathi, the IPTL founder, was remarkably upbeat, and already looking forward to 2017 and beyond, confident that his fortunes - and the crowds, which have largely stayed away here in Singapore - will improve.
More interestingly for the sport in general, there is a feeling around that 2017 will finally mark a changing of the old tennis guard, with both Federer and Nadal battling injury for much of 2016, (and both now in their thirties), and with Djokovic (also to be thirty soon, in May next year) not at his best, leaving opportunities galore for the others ranked in and around the top 10 on the mens side. As for the women, Serena Williams, the same age, at 35, as Federer, has been nursing a shoulder injury since September, while Maria Sharapova will have much to prove on the court if she decides to compete seriously again. Angelique Kerber will be the number 1 women's seed in Melbourne. Very satisfying too, for us back in Blighty, to see Johanna Konta in the mix there, having finished 2016 ranked number 10 in the world.
At a press conference yesterday Fernando Verdasco was asked somewhat cruelly why, in fifteen years on the professional circuit, he had never won a Grand Slam. His storming performance this afternoon against Pablo Cuevas, whom he trounced 6-2, was perhaps designed to provide a tardy riposte to the cheeky journalist. Especially admirable since he has had to pick up the mantle of team leader from Kei Nishikori, the Warriors' 'main man' in the Japan leg.
The Spaniard fared less well in the mens doubles, partnering Jean-Julien Rojer, and they lost 6-5 to Pablo Cuevas and Martina Hingis, and Rojer, with Jelena Jankovic, lost again, this time 6-1, to Nestor and Hingis in the mixed. Ana Ivanovic has been looking beautiful all week, but this has not translated to much in the way of results on court, and she was substituted, trailing 0-3 to Kurumi Nara, by Martina Hingis, in a belated attempt to rescue the set. The attempt failed, and Nara won 6-0 for the first 'bagel' of the tournament, her backhand down the line proving an especially effective weapon.
Hingis had been outstanding in both her mixed doubles sets earlier; she gave a slightly wistful press conference after her matches, noting that "I've still got some game in me", reminiscing about her rivalry with the Williams sisters, and talking abut parental involvement in the lives of young - mainly female - tennis players. Famously the Swiss superstar failed to win the French Open in 1997, the year she won all the other three Grand Slams, beaten in straight sets by the relatively unknown ninth seed Iva Majoli from Croatia, and, infamously, she served a two-year ban for taking benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, at Wimbledon 2007.
As a doubles specialist since coming back on tour in 2013, she has won the same three Slams (Australian Open, Wimbledon, US Open) with Sania Mirza, but they ended their partnership earlier this year, and Hingis now plays with the American Coco Vandeveghe. The French Open continues to elude the Swiss legend. To quote 'Dave', recently active on social media; "Martina Hingis is like a bus, with people getting on and off at every corner... It's going to be a short partnership.... CoCo isn't going to be able to put up with her for long". You wouldn't get anyone saying that about Roger Federer now, would you?
In many ways the 'legends' have been the stars of the last few days. Here's what they said about the experience;
Mark Philippoussis (Indian Aces)
“I enjoy it. Tennis is a beautiful sport, great one, but most of the time you feel very lonely. I love playing in a team environment. This is a very unique format, with great energy, with teams that are like families.”
Goran Ivanisevic (UAE Royals)
“I love my team, it would be extremely weird to change sides and that means I love it. The format is a great idea, very quick one. People are very pumped and want to win. When you go out there, you really want to perform well but the next day everything hurts, you are more tight than years ago.”
Marat Safin (Japan Warriors)
“How we play at the IPTL makes the format very interesting, very cool. For the spectators, it can be quite confusing at the beginning but then they have the chance to see a very different sort of players and style in just a couple of hours' time.
Rainer Schuettler (OUE Singapore Slammers)
“It’s a very exciting format. In every single point, you have to be there. You can’t ever relax and that’s what makes it even more enjoyable. It’s always very entertaining and that makes it so special for the fans.”
It is a potentially exhausting schedule for the teams, with no rest day between here and the Indian leg, so it is fortunate that they are all having such fun.
The Japanese Warriors beat the UAE Royals 23-20 in the afternoon session today, thus moving to ten points in the standings, level with the Singapore Slammers, behind the Indian Aces with eleven, all of them ahead of the UAE Royals with eight. The top two teams in the race after the first two days' play in Hyderabad, India (tomorrow and Saturday) will contest the final there on Sunday 11 December. You can watch the action live on Sky.
David Barnes/Topspin, 2016
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