IPTL 2 : Singapore Slammers upset Indian Aces 26-22 to emerge as champions

Singapore-SlammersSingapore , December 20 : Led by Stanislas Wawrinka , the Singapore Slammers upset the Indian Aces in a pulsating International Premier League Tennis (IPTL) final on Sunday to be crowned the champions for 2015. Despite trailing the Aces throughout the five-leg regional contest, the Slammers, led by Stan Wawrinka, completed a comprehensive win 26 games to 22, earning themselves the trophy and US$1 million (S$1.4 million) in prize money.

The Slammers had warmed up for the finals  with a thorough dismantling of the Aces, the IPTL defending champions, on Saturday.  Wawrinka, who replaced Novak Djokovic in this fixture, played his role with aplomb, seeing off Bernard Tomic in the men’s singles and combining with Marcelo Melo in the deciding set to seal the victory.

Belinda Bencic continued her winning run by beating Svetlana Kuznetsa in the women’s singles, with the Aces only able to win one set in the mixed doubles.

In the men’s legends opener, Fabrice Santoro began with an intensity Carlos Moya was missing in the first two games but the Spanish former world number one got his racket singing soon enough.He snatched a crucial break of serve in the sixth game to up 4-2, set up by a wonderful winner down the line.

Santoro meantime was seeing red, not only on his opponent’s back. He threw his racket in frustration in the next game as Moya looked to race to an early set finish, but a well-timed coach’s time out gave the Frenchman some calm and a break back.

Moya returned the favour next game however and used a power point play, where a point is worth double, in the tenth game to give the Slammers the early lead.

In the women’s singles, Belinda Becic had thrashed Svetlana Kuznetsava on Saturday but found her opponent far more combative in the final.

Both players failed to find rhythm on their serve, and the first four games were broken. It was the young Swiss though starting to find a groove.

She produced some sublime, crisp forehand winners in the face of pure, and literal, grunt from Kuznetsova, yet at 4-4 the set could have gone either way.

But the Russian boiled over, become error-prone in the deciding tiebreak game, and Bencic, in jubilation with her team on the bench, took the set 6-5, giving Singapore a three-game advantage.

It was to be quickly eroded away. Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna have been formidable as a mixed doubles pair all throughout IPTL 2015 and, even with a pumped up Dustin Brown at the other end of the court, their form did not slip.

Despite his posturing and hard hitting, it was Brown making costly errors – too many, too often – and soon the Aces had eroded the deficit and led 4-1 in the set.

Brown hit the net on a crucial power point and kicked his racket away in disgust, his side’s situation dire at 2-5. Next game, Bopanna drove the nail with a searing return ace on set point and like that, the visitors were ahead 15-14.

Singles select Bernard Tomic should have beaten Stan Wawrinka on Saturday but he never looked like it when the match, and indeed the tournament, was in the balance.

IPTL’s format rewards intensity, but equally consistency as a set ebbs and flows. It seemed to suit the gritty Wawrinka; less so the Australian who is prone to dropping off into a slump when points fail to go his way.

In a defining fifth match, Tomic made an unforced error at the net and double-faulted before being flattened by a trademark Wawrinka backhand winner and dropping his serve.

The Swiss raced through the remainder of the set 6-3 to give Singapore a two-game advantage going into the final set. “I was moving a bit better, playing more aggressive. This was the final, we want to win. This is what we’re playing for,” he said.

Wawrinka was joined by beast-mode Marcelo Melo, the men’s double world number one, for the ultimate contest.

There was some serious strength and venom coming their way from Bopanna and hard-serving Ivan Dodig but the Singapore crowd at Indoor Stadium lifted their team and mid-way through the set, victory was but a formality.