IPTL: UAE Royals turn back Manila Mavericks
The UAE Royals fought off a strong challenge from the hometown team Manila Mavericks to hack out a 29-24 win in the inaugural Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, his amusing antics winning over the crowd, overcame Carlos Moya 6-5 in a shootout to win the past champions’ singles set and give the Royals the early lead.
US Open champion Marin Cilic then teamed with Nenad Zimonjic to top the tandem of Mavericks playing coach Treat Huey and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-4, in the men’s doubles set to pad the Royals’ lead to 12-9.
Prior to the match, Huey made a change in the mixed doubles, fielding in Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray against the Royals tandem of Zimonjic and Kristina Mladenovic. The Royals broke serve in the third game to snatch an early 2-1 lead. They held serve in the fourth before breaking the Mavericks again in the fifth to take a commanding 4-1 lead. Zimonjic then stretched it to 5-1 with an ace on a “Happiness Power Point”, which is worth two game points.
But Murray and Sharapova weren’t done yet. They held serve in the seventh game, broke the Royals in the eighth, and held serve again in the ninth to cut the deficit to 4-5. But Zimonjic and Mladenovic closed it out in the 10th, overhauling a 0-30 deficit by winning the next four points to win the set 6-4.
Sharapova then took on Mladenovic in the women’s singles in what turned out to be the most thrilling set of the night. The two held serve in the first two games, but the set took a strange turn in the third game after Sharapova lost a point and the game after failing to serve within the allotted 20 seconds. Mladenovic held serve in the fourth to go up 3-1, and padded the lead to 5-2 with another break in the seventh.
Sharapova broke back in the eighth set, winning the game with an awkwardly struck looper that just sailed in. She then survived a double fault at 40-30 to recover and cut it to 4-5. Serving for the set and with the crowd now solidly behind her opponent, Mladenovic faltered and allowed Sharapova to tie it at 5 and force a five-minute shootout.
In the shootout, it was all Masha. The Russian star quickly went up 5-1 before coasting to a 7-3 win to clinch the set 6-5 to the delight of the pro-Sharapova crowd.
“I didn’t want to lose my first singles match in Manila,” Sharapova said in a television interview immediately after the set.
Murray and Marin Cilic battled in the men’s singles for the final set, with the reigning US Open champion taking an early 3-1 lead before Murray rallied behind a strong serve to win the next three games and seize a 4-3 lead. But Cilic battled back to tie it at 5-all and set up another five-minute shootout.
Cilic took control in the shootout, outscoring Murray 7-3 to win the set 6-5 and give the Royals a 29-24 win. The Royals thus picked up four points for their victory, while the Mavericks, by scoring over 20 game points, were awarded two points.
