The Coca-Cola IPTL touched down in Dubai, the fourth of the five venues in this post-season tennis championship, and the same trend continued as the Micromax Indian Aces won their seventh tie of the league and the Legendari Japan Warriors lost for the eighth time in nine ties.
Overall, the Aces only won three out of the five sets but it was the margin of their victories that sealed the win (25-18), as Agnieszka Radwanska thrashed Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-1 and Fabrice Santoro baguelled Thomas Enqvist.
The Warriors salvaged some pride with wins from Herbert/Flipkens over Bopanna/Mirza (6-4) in the mixed doubles and Philipp Kohlschreiber over Bernard Tomic (6-3).
The other set was the closest of all and went the Aces’ way in the tie break as the experienced doubles pairing of Bopanna and Dodig just edged Paes and Herbert.
The other clash of the day was a mid-table affaire between local side OBI UAE Royals and the Philippine Mavericks with the visitors pulling off an upset by 26 games to 24.
Practically every set went right down to the wire and up to four of the five that were played ended up in the Mavericks’ favour.
James Blake defeated Goran Ivanisevic 6-5, Roger – Vasselin/Gajdosova beat Cilic/Mladenovic 6-5, Roger-Vasselin/Huey defeated Federer/Cilic 6-4 and then Ivo Karlovic handed Roger Federer his second defeat in two singles appearances with a 6-4 win which only featured five aces.
Salvaging the Royals’ pride was Kristina Mladenovic who sailed past Ajla Tomljanovic 6-2 but didn’t manage to avoid her side’s defeat.
Tomorrow’s action will see the Mavericks take on the Indian Aces and Royals face the Slammers, which will include a thrilling encounter between Federer and Murray. The Swiss, vying to bag his first win, looked ahead to the match against the Scot: “Against Andy I’ve had some great matches. We match-up well, so one can expect a lot of slices, serve and volleys, some coming in, the court plays different than the tournament, definitely slower, so we’ll probably see a bit more rallies. I’m not sure how well and how much he’s been playing since his last match. But I’m feeling like I’m only going to get better from here on, so I’m looking forward to playing him here tomorrow.”
