Philippines represented at International Premier Tennis League gala
“We rarely get to see live world-class sport in the Philippines, so this team will garner tremendous support.”
These were the words of Filipino broadcast executive Francis Lumen two nights ago when he attended an evening cocktail party of owners and players who will participate in the inaugural International Premier Tennis League starting in November. The get-together took place in a hotel near Wimbledon in London.
Lumen was representing the Manila franchise of the league, which will host teams from Dubai, Singapore, and Mumbai in late November. There will be a whopping US29.7 million in prize money for the league, which features four sides playing in a round-robin format.
Playing for team Philippines will be none other that Scotland's reigning Wimbledon champ, Andy Murray, who expressed his enthusiasm for the IPTL, a brainchild of Indian doubles legend Mahesh Bhupathi.
“It's good that all the players have had a chance to meet the owners of the franchises of the IPTL. It's great to be able to play tennis in parts of the world that don't have a huge tennis heritage but have a big fan base.”
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“Being able to grow the sport globally is very important to me” added Murray.
Murray will be joined in the Philippine side by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, Spain's Carlos Moya, Belarus' Victoria Azarenka, Canada's Daniel Nestor, and Filipino-American Treat Huey. Belgian Kirtsen Flipkens is also slated to join the Manila squad.
Manila became the replacement for Bangkok after political strife in Thailand forced the organizers to look for another home for a Southeast Asian team.
Manila will face a Dubai team that will include Serbian Novak Djokovic, Switzerland's Martina Hingis, and Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki. Janko Tipsarevic has also been drafted.
Djokovic has won three tournaments in a row in Dubai and says “the city holds a special place in my heart.”
Singapore is pinning their hopes on Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, and Australian veterans Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter. Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova are also penciled in for the Lion City. One of the part-owners of the Singapore franchise is Indian cricket icon Sunil Gavaskar.
The Mumbai franchise will not only include Spain's Rafa Nadal, but also Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna of the home country.
It has been reported that the team owners have paid up to US$15 million for the franchises, which they will own for a minimum of ten years.
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The IPTL says the kickoff leg for the league will be in Manila in late November and that the venue will be finalized in the coming weeks. Ticket availability and pricing will also be announced soon.
All four teams will play in all of the host cities using a unique format. Each tie will consist of five sets: mens singles, ladies singles, mens doubles, mixed doubles, and a legends singles set for the likes of Rafter, Agassi, et al. Each set will have a tiebreaker at 5-5 instead of 6-6.
The team that wins the most games, not sets, emerges the winner of the tie.
IPTL eventually plans to expand the league to a total of eight cities around the world.
The president of the Asian Tennis Federation, Anil Khanna, could not hide his excitement over the league.
“We are extremely delighted to extend our full support to the IPTL and look forward to hosting the best of tennis across Asia. We are confident that an event of such international calibre will truly boost the growth of tennis in our region.
The IPTL is certainly pumped up about their prospects, as evidenced by this recent tweet.
Follow the IPTL on Twitter @iptl. Follow Bob @PassionateFanPH.
