International Premier Tennis League: Singapore Slammers Smash Past Japan Warriors
Japan Warriors, which has players like Leander Paes and Philip Kohlschreiber, lost 20-29 to Singapore Slammers in the first match of the Manila leg at the International Premier Tennis League
Singapore Slammers scripted a 29-20 win over Japan Warriors on day one of the Manila leg of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) here on Sunday. (Read more tennis stories here)
The legends kicked off the afternoon, with Sinagapore Slammers' Carlos Moya and Japan Warriors' Marat Safin receiving loud cheers. Matching each other stroke for stroke, Moya got the better of the Russian winning the set 6-4.
Men's doubles gave the Warriors their first set win with Leander Paes and Pierre-Hugues Herbert winning it 6-5 in a super shootout against Dustin Brown and Marcelo Melo.
In the women's singles, Belinda Bencic overpowered the young Kurumi Nara, and even a mid-set substitution with Mirjana Lucic could not help the Warriors take the lead. With a 6-2 win, the Slammers taking their overall lead to 17-12.
The men's singles was a thrilling encounter with Nick Kyrgios and Philip Kohlschreiber providing some power-packed tennis to the fans. In an evenly contested encounter, Kyrgios won it 6-5 for the Slammers in a shoot-out.
The mixed doubles saw a super-charged Kyrgios/Bencic take on Lucic/Herbert from the first ball itself, winning the set 6-3 for the Slammers.
On his match, Marat Safin said: "I am taking a bit more time getting used to the format, it is making me nervous and not allowing me to play the way I do. I feel bad for my team, they have hopes on me, and there is pressure for us to win. The rest of the players have an advantage, most of them played last year, and they are used to it."