Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, co-owner of the Singapore Slammers – one of the four franchise teams that will kick-off the inaugural season of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) – yesterday announced details about his team which will include Serena Williams and Andre Agassi.
Gavaskar is part of a group of tennis-enthusiastic businessmen – along with Shashi Kiran Shetty, Ajay Sethi and Kishan Gehlot – who together own the Singapore Slammers.
The franchise was launched yesterday at the Shangri La Hotel in Singapore and will be hosting the three other teams, the UAE Royals, Team Manila and the Indian Aces, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium from December 2-4, 2014.
The IPTL is a new team tennis competition, founded by Indian doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi, featuring the best current and former ATP and WTA players across four cities in Asia – Manila, Singapore, Delhi, and Dubai, from November 28 to December 13, 2014.
“The IPTL is a great idea and with the best tennis players in the world taking part, it should be a wonderfully entertaining experience for tennis lovers,” said Gavaskar.
“Singapore has always been a sports loving nation and it is therefore an honour and pleasure to be a co-owner of the Singapore franchise, the Singapore Slammers.
“I am sure tennis lovers will be in for a feast of top class tennis.”
Following the unveiling of the UAE Royals – headlined by world No1 Novak Djokovic – in Dubai last month, Bhupathi yesterday revealed the full line-up of the Singapore Slammers which will comprise of Williams, Agassi, Tomas Berdych, Daniela Hantuchova, Bruno Soares and Australian trio Lleyton Hewitt, Patrick Rafter and teenage up-and-comer Nick Kyrgios.
The four teams will compete for a total prize money of $1million (Dh3.6m) and the league will conclude in Dubai, where the action will reach its climax at the Hamdan Sports Complex from December 11- 13.
“The IPTL format will be very attractive to broadcasters and fans alike,” said Bhupathi.
“We have changed the traditional scoring format to single-set no-ad scoring which will speed up the games and allow us to expose the fans to up to 24 different players in one evening.
“Fans will see players calling for timeouts in the middle of a game, announcing a ‘power point’ and play a ‘shoot out’ to decide the winners of each match while live entertainment, a running shot clock and many more features will attract a new audience to the sport.”
Tickets for the Singapore leg of the league will go on sale on August 20 on www.sportshub.com.sg while those looking to attend the Dubai leg can buy their entry passes from www.ticketmaster.ae.