Champions Tennis League Announces its Line-up, Venus Williams to Play for Bangalore

Multiple Grand Slam winner Venus Williams was on Wednesday revealed as one of the players who will compete in the upcoming Champion Tennis League (CTL) for the Bangalore team while India's top singles player Somdev Devvarman was named in the Chandigarh franchise.

The organisers revealed six teams -- Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai and Chandigarh -- for the league, which will be played from November 17 to 26.

Somdev's teammate would be Spain's world number five David Ferrer and his compatriot Garbine Muguruza (world number 22) along with former British star Greg Rusedski.

American tennis star Venus, who has won seven Grand Slam titles, will have former Swede Thomas Enqvist, Spain's Feliciano Lopez and India's Ramkumar Ramanathan in the Bangalore team.

Women's world number 11 Jelena Jankovic will spearhead the Delhi side, which also has South African Kevin Anderson, Juan Carlos Ferrero from Spain and India's Sanam Singh.

World number 24 Philipp Kohlschreiber and world number six in women Agnieszka Radwanska will lead the charge of the Pune team, which has Pat Cash as its legend player apart from India's Saketh Myneni.

The Mumbai team features world number 22 Tommy Robredo, 21st-ranked Alize Cornet and former Spanish star Sergi Bruguera apart from India's Sriram Balaji.

Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, Swiss star Martina Hingis, Australia's Mark Philippoussis and India's Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan formed the Chennai team.

Former Indian star Vijay Amritraj, who has conceptualised the League with AITA, said, "I am delighted that we are able to bring top international male and female tennis stars to various parts of the country to participate in a city-based India-only league. Indian Davis Cup players alongside these great players would be extremely exciting to watch and will cheer on for each city."

"The two young players, a boy and a girl, would fill out the roster, and for me this is particularly important as it gives youngsters an opportunity to learn from this amazing experience," he added.

The teams will be structured into two groups, where all teams play each other in a home and away format. The team with the highest number of games won in their respective group will play each other in the grand finale to win a prize money of Rs. 1 crore. The runner-up will win Rs. 50 lakhs.

Each of the six teams will also have an international legend as their playing captain, apart from a top-ranked junior Indian girl and boy from each city.