Nadal and Serena inspire wins for Aces and Mavericks in IPTL

The Indian Aces and the Philippine Mavericks continued their impressive run in this year's International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) with victories in the second stage of the tournament in Manila.

Rafael Nadal, in his first IPTL showing, secured a clean sweep for the team with a 6-5 victory over UAE Royal's Tomas Berdych on Monday (December 7).

Earlier in the day, a win for Samantha Stosur, and a men's doubles victory for Nadal and Ivan Dodig over Daniel Nestor and Berdych, had already put the Aces in an unassailable position when Nadal took to the court for the singles clash with the backing of the crowd in Manila.

However, the Czech fought had to push Nadal all the way but eventually the Spaniard claimed victory to secure an overall victory of 30-18.

The Aces victory moves them to top of the IPTL table with three wins from three.

After his victory, Nadal said the IPTL format was a lot of fun.

"I enjoyed it. I have a great team around, funny people. And I think we played quite well, it was a different way to play tennis," said the world number five.

Closely behind the Aces in the overall table are the Philippine Mavericks, who were cheered on by a raucous home crowd on Monday.

Serena Williams and Milos Raonic combined to win the mixed doubles 6-4 over Japan Warriors' Pierre-Huges Herbert and Mirjan Lucic-Baroni, after the Warriors had put the home team under pressure with a 6-3 victory for Philipp Kohlschreiber over Richard Gasquet in the men's singles.

However, after Williams' doubles victory she then dispatched Lucic-Baroni 6-3 in the women's singles on the way to a 25-21 overall victory for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks are now second in the overall table with three wins from four matches.

The top two meet on Wednesday (December 8) in the final round of matches in the Manila stage of the competition.

The event then moves onto New Delhi on December 10.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Sharapova wants better health and tennis next year

MANILA -- Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova said on Saturday that her main goals for next year are to stay healthy and improve her play.

Speaking in the Philippines, where she has been playing in the International Premier Tennis League team tournament, the 27-year-old Russian told a news conference: "Well, I think my main goal will (be to) continue to be healthy. At the end of last year I missed about four or five months out of this season and I came into his season not having many expectations, because I was actually quite happy putting a lot of things into perspective and coming out on the court.

"I started the year at number four. I was in a position many times during the year to fall out of the top 10 and I finished the year at number two. So it's been quite a successful year and next year I set myself much bigger goals."

Sharapova said she enjoyed being part of a team in Manila.

"The best thing is the team atmosphere. It's so different than what we do in such an individual sport. So it's always nice to do, to be able to huddle around as a team and get that support, keep each other going out there," she said.

Asked about her longer term future, Sharapova said: "I don't have a crystal ball, but yeah, I still have a tremendous amount of passion for what I do, I love playing the sport and I hope that my body is healthy enough to continue for a few more years. You know, personally I would love to start a family one day, but I think that's in the future at this point."

Indian player Sania Mirza is also in the tournament and she said it was great to face top stars.

"...it feels good. I mean, it's good to win every match. You know we get into every match, we are trying to win, we are fighting. The whole team is fighting a lot and you know, so it was great to be up and then to obviously, you know, beat the great players. Everyone's a great player here, so everyone is a champion at least. Some, you know most of them are grand slam champions or number ones in the world. So winning any match here is very exciting."

Modelled on the successful Indian Premier League cricket competition, the IPTL involves a five-set format made up of a men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles and a past champions' singles match.

The competition in Manila will continue until Sunday (November 30), with Serena Williams joining the Indian Aces. Further league events will be take place next month in Singapore, India and Dubai.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com