Just like in their previous meeting on the opening day of the IPTL in Japan, the Micromax Indian Aces were pushed right to the wire by the Legendari Japan Warriors in New Delhi today. The Aces backed up yesterday’s thumping win over the Philippine Mavericks with a 26-21 win which keeps them clearly on top of the table.
With no Rafa Nadal featuring today, the local side still managed to seal victory. One of the most reliable mixed doubles partnerships in the competition got the ball rolling for them as Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna cemented a 6-4 victory againt Mirjana Lucic-Baroni.
Agnieszka Radwanska backed this up with a 6-2 win over Lucic-Baroni which opened up a slight gap on the scoreboard in set two but ever so slightly closed down in the third set by Herbert and Paes who got the Warriors’ first win of the tie by 6-5 against Bopanna and Dodig.
Fabrice Santoro again proved he’s one of the most in-form senior player with a solid 6-3 win over Thomas Enqvist before one of the relevations of the competition, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, backed up a couple of wins against Tomas Berdych with another victory (6-3) against Ivan Dodig, but it wasn’t enough to avoid yet another defeat for the bottom-placed Japan Warriors.
Earlier in the day, the Singapore Slammers got their third win in the IPTL with a 30-22 victory over the Philippine Mavericks.
The Slammers won every single set, three of them coming in the deciding tie break. Carlos Moya defeated Mark Philippoussis 6-4, Dustin Brown/Karolina Pliskova d.Treat Huey 6-5, Belinda Bencic d. Ajla Tomaljanovic 6-3, Nick Kyrgios/Marcelo Melo d. Treat Huey/Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-5 and Nick Kyrgios d. Edouard Roger Vasselin 6-5.
After the tie Nick Kyrgios spoke about this exciting format: “We had a great match today, winning all our sets. I love the IPTL, it’s a great format, and I really look forward to this time of the year. For me personally, it’s not difficult adjusting to the regular game when I go back on the tour. It’s just fine”.
The controversial Aussie also made the most of the situation to try and clarify that he’s not as bad as everyone tries to make him come across: “I’ve had a great year, played some fantastic tennis, made it deep in the Grand Slam draw which is great. I’m not really a bad boy. I am young and it’s fine. But I also feel I’ve matured a lot in this year. I’m looking forward to the next season, I’m competitive, I play to win … so whether it’s a game of chess or football, I play to win!”
