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JAPAN : Defending champions Indian Aces overcame a deficit in the opening two sets to narrowly clinch the opening match against the Japanese Warriors. The Aces lost three of the five sets in the match but won the match on the margin of the games – 26 to 25. To start the proceedings, Maria Sharapova and Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeated the much-experienced Indian doubles pairing of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in an enthralling contest that saw both teams play somewhat lopsided. Mirza and Bopanna had their chance to serve out the set, but missed, leading to the tie-break that the Russo-French team won without dropping a point to take the lead in the match 6-5. Sharapova then took the momentum onto the women’s singles set against Aces’ Sam Stosur. Though the Aussie started strongly going toe-to-toe with the world no. 3, in the final moments of the set, it was Sharapova, who prevailed to win the set 6-4. It was however Fabrice Santoro, who turned things firmly around for the Aces. The Frenchman was near-impeccable in his legends singles set against Marat Safin, coming up with the choicest of his trick shots as if he were never away from tennis. Safin’s double fault at match point saw the Aces go in the lead for the first time in the match 15-14. The men’s doubles set saw Bopanna carry forth his last year’s IPTL partnership with Gael Monfils, while local favourite Kei Nishikori and Herbert teamed up for the Warriors. It was a tight contest, but the Indo-French partnership came through 6-4 in the end, riding on the back of some skilful shot-making. It was quite a heady atmosphere when Nishikori and Monfils took to the court for their men’s singles set. Both players held their nerves – and their games – steady, but in the 10th game of the set, Monfils suddenly lost his composure. It was enough for the Japanese to press on his advantage and it got the desired result as Nishikori won the set 6-4. But while the Aces would be pleased to see a positive start for their 2015 IPTL campaign, they do have their work cut out for themselves against the OBI UAE Royals against whom they will face-off on Friday. It will be an interesting match-up given how decisively the Royals won their first match against the Singapore Slammers.