Tennis stars Murray, Sharapova banner Manila Mavs in ITPL 1st leg

Manolo Pedralvez

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Tennis stars Murray, Sharapova banner Manila Mavs in ITPL 1st leg
Fil-Am doubles specialist Treat Huey joins Andy Murray and Maria Sharapova on the Manila Mavericks who will compete in the kick-off leg of the International Premier Tennis League

MANILA, Philippines – Fil-Am doubles specialist Treat Huey joins Scottish top gun Andy Murray and female superstar Maria Sharapova on the Manila Mavericks who will compete in the kick-off leg of the International Premier Tennis League set Nov. 28-30 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Organizers of the team tennis event, led by Mahesh Bhupathi, unveiled the line-up of the Mavericks on Thursday, July 24, at a press conference held at the Shangri-la Hotel.

After laboring under the tag as the best player never to have won a major title, Murray scored a breakthrough in finally winning the Wimbledon men’s singles crown, the first Briton to win the fabled grasscourt championship in 77 years.

He also won the Olympic men’s singles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games and a US Open crown.

Sharapova, on the other hand, has won five Grand Slam singles titles and is considered the poster girl of the women’s professional tennis while Huey has been a Philippine Davis Cup team mainstay.

Aside from Murray, Sharapova and Huey, other members of the Manila Mavericks are Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Canadian Daniel Nestor, former French Open champ Carlos Moya of Spain and Belgian Kirsten Flipken.

The home squad will be battling the Singapore Slammers, the UAE Royals, Indian Aces, whose teams will also be composed of world-class players.

From Manila, the IPTL will move to Singapore from Dec. 2 to 4, New Delhi, India (Dec. 6 to 8) and Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (Dec. 11 to 13). The overall champion will get most of the total pot of $1 million (approximately P43 million).

Bhupathi said the format of the competition is similar to the Indian Premier Cricket League, whose revisions to the traditional game was meant to liven up the matches and make them more exciting.

Squads will see action in a five-set tie composed of a men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles, and former champions singles matches.

The set will have “no-add scoring” with the tie-breakers set at 5-5, unlike the usual match at 6-6.

Teams securing the most games wins the tie in the event sanctioned by the Philippine Tennis Association.

Other match innovations include “power points,” where the receiving player who calls the serve and returns it successfully earns double points, a shot clock, timeouts. If necessary, a seven-point tie-breaking shootout will decide ties that end in a stalemate.

A winning tie is worth four points but a losing team can earn a point if it tallies 10 to 19 games and two points if it gains 20 games.

Bhupati said that these steps were taken to make the matches easily accessible to television viewers.

Sports reporter TJ Manotoc reported via Twitter that tickets will be priced between P300 and P15,000 and go on sale August 15. – Rappler.com

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