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IPTL: UAE Royals outlast DBS Singapore Slammers

The UAE Royals picked up their second straight win in the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), beating the DBS Singapore Slammers 28-22 in a highly entertaining affair at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Three of the five sets were extended to a five-minute shootout, and one went down to a sudden-death set point. US Open champion Marin Cilic continued displaying good form, giving the Royals an early lead by taking the men’s singles set, 6-4, against Tomas Berdych.

The second set which featured men’s doubles between the Slammers’ Berdych and Nick Kyrgios and the Aces’ Cilic and Nenad Zimonjic went down the wire as the two pairs battled to a 5-5 standoff and a 6-6 deadlock at the end of the five-minute shootout. Kyrgios sealed the win dramatically with an ace on the sudden-death point to give the Slammers a 6-5 set win on a 7-6 shootout score.

The sudden-death set point is another new feature in the IPTL. In traditional tennis, if a set is tied a 6-all, the two sides play a race-to-7 tiebreak. If the tiebreak goes to 6-all the first player to take a 2-point lead wins the tiebreak and the set. In the IPTL, the tiebreak is replaced with the sudden-death set point.

The Royals started to pull away after the women’s singles where Kristina Mladenovic blasted Daniela Hantuchova, 6-1, to pad their overall lead to 17-11.

In mixed doubles, the Slammers pair of Bruno Soares and Daniela Hantuchova were deadlocked with Zimonjic and Mladenovic at 4-4 when Slammers coach Josh Eagle substituted Soares for Kyrgios. The move paid off as the energetic Kyrgios' booing serves carried the pair to a 6-5 win after clinching the shootout 7-4.

Mladenovic later said she "got scared" of Kyrgios' serves. "I couldn't answer any of them," she said.

The option to substitute a player in a doubles set is another new feature of the IPTL.

The past champions’ set featuring Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic appeared to be a continuation of their epic Wimbledon final in 2001 won by the Croatian in five sets. Although both have been retired for several years now, the two still put on a good show for the fans with their trademarks - strong serves from Ivanisevic and great volleying from Rafter.

Both players held serve through the first 10 games to set up a five-minute shootout. In the end, just like he did in Wimbledon, Ivanisevic outlasted Rafter 9-3 in the shootout to win the set 6-5 and give the Royals a 28-22 win.

“Today I served unbelievable,” said Ivanisevic, who had three aces to none for Rafter. “As always it’s good to play Pat because of the memories, especially for me because I won in Wimbledon.”

Ivanisevic then paid Rafter the ultimate compliment, calling him “the best volleyer ever to play the game.”

The Royals thus collected another four points to pad their total to eight, while the Slammers, who suffered their second straight loss after bowing to the Micromax Indian Aces on Friday night, picked up two points to go up to three overall.