The revolutionary new tennis league, which aims to "break the code" of tennis' traditional format, begins at 4 p.m. with the Fabrice Santoro-coached Aces going up against Josh Eagle's Slammers.
First up will be the men's singles showdown between world no. 18 Gael Monfils of the Aces against world no. 7 Tomas Berdych of the Slammers.
Up next is the women's singles showdown between Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova, followed by a men's doubles wherein Monfils will team up with Rohan Bopanna to take on Bruno Soares and Lleyton Hewitt.
A mixed doubles match will then pit Bopanna and Sania Mirza against Hantuchova and Soares, and the first group tie will be capped by a legends singles showdown between Indian Aces playing coach Fabrice Sontoro against Patrick Rafter.
The hometown Manila Mavericks will make their IPTL debut at 7:30 p.m., when world no. 6 Andy Murray faces off against world no. 9 and reigning U.S. champion Marin Cilic.
The women's singles will see Maria Sharapova take on Kristina Mladenovic, who took the place of the injured Eugenie Bouchard in the UAE Royals line-up.
Filipino-American tennis star Treat Huey will then team up with Daniel Nestor in the men's doubles, where they will take on the pair of Cilic and Nenad Zimonjic.
The first day of the IPTL will be capped by a legends showdown between Carlos Moya of the Manila Mavericks and Goran Ivanisevic of the UAE Royals.
Players and coaches competing in the league have expressed their excitement with the new tournament format, which is designed to make the sport more attractive to fans both inside the MOA Arena and to those watching on television.
The traditional scoring format has been changed to a single-set, no-add scoring, which will speed up the game and allow the fans to witness 24 different players compete in one evening.
Each match will consist of five sets to be played by different players, and each game won counts as one point for the team's points total. The team that wins the most games overall across the five sets wins the match.
The order of play will be decided by the home team, and the team line-up is given to the umpire 45 minutes before the match starts. In the case of the two away teams, the order of play will be determined by a coin toss.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
