Internet Desk: Only one of world tennis’ Big Four — Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal — will feature in the upcoming season of the IPTL, which has shifted base to Hyderabad, even as its founder Mahesh Bhupathi asserted that there are no payment issues around the league.
IPTL, a hit concept launched by India’s first Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi, featured a marquee clash between Indian Aces’ Nadal and UAE Royals’ Federer last year in Delhi.
In the absence of star players, such a clash will be missed this year as world number 28 Feliciano Lopez from Spain is so far the highest-ranked singles male player in the Indian team.
But it has to be noted that both Nadal and Federer have faced injury issues this season and cut short their respective 2016 season. Federer has not played since Wimbledon and Nadal wrapped up his season in October. Djokovic had featured in the inaugural season for Dubai but had missed the 2015 edition.
“One of the Big Four is definitely coming. We did not want to reveal all our cards today. We will announce the name in the next 48 hours,” Bhupathi told PTI, confirming that a few big names will be missed.
Bhupathi said some of the best tennis players in the world would be coming to Hyderabad for the event. “Personally, I am very excited to come here. Obviously, an event of this magnitude, we have team (Indian Aces) owners they were looking at various options across the country after they decided, we want to move from Delhi. They explored Kolkata, they explored Mumbai, they explored Ahmedabad and they even explored Bangalore,” Bhupathi told reporters in Hyderabad.
“But, it was a very recent decision. I was fortunate enough to come and meet the minister (Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao). In 48 hours, we got all the support we needed and, with infrastructure as well, to be able to host (the event) here,” he added.
Bhupathi said all four IPTL teams would be playing at the Gachibowli stadium on December 9 and 10, followed by the IPTL finals on December 11.
The first two legs will be in Tokyo and Singapore before culminating in Hyderabad.
The matches would be played in the indoor stadium and the format of the event would be the same (round robin) as last year with the teams playing each other.
“Like in last year, we have the final in Singapore, this year the final is in Hyderabad,” he said.
“We are excited to be moving home base from Delhi to Hyderabad to connect with a new demography of the Indian tennis enthusiast. After two satisfying years in Delhi, the opportunity to call another city ‘home of the Indian Aces’ is both exhilarating and exciting. We look forward to having the city come out in large numbers to support our very own Indian Ace, home-girl Sania Mirza amongst a spectacular line-up of international tennis stars,” a release issued by the organizers quoted Siddhesh Sharma, Co-Owner of the IPTL India franchise, the Indian Aces, as saying.
The third season of the IPTL will commence in Tokyo (December 2-4). It will then move to Singapore (December 6-8) and Hyderabad (December 9-11). The season will witness a total of 17 matches, with each of the four teams playing eight matches in a customised round robin format, the release said.
Following are the team compositions for the third season of the IPTL:
Japan Warriors: Kei Nishikori, Fernando Verdasco, Kurumi Nara, Jelena Jankovic, Fernando Gonzalez, Marat Safin and Jean-Julien Rojer.
UAE Royals: Tomas Berdych, Pablo Cuevas, Ana Ivanovic, Thomas Johansson and Danier Nestor
OUE Singapore Slammers: Serena Williams, Nick Kyrgios, Marcos Baghdatis, Kiki Bertens, Carloys Moya and Marcelo Melo.
Indian Aces: Feliciano Lopez, Iva Dodig, Eugenie Bouchard, Thomas Enqvist, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna.