Tennis greats, megastars descend on MOA today

MANILA, Philippines - Tennis action that’s never been seen before on Philippine soil unfolds tonight with the holding of the International Premier Tennis League inaugural leg at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Past, present and future Grand Slam winners will be in town for this event to be played under a quicker and more exciting format that’s dubbed as “the way of the future.”

The tall and lovely Maria Sharapova should easily be the darling of the crowd when action is held for three days starting today at the world-class MOA Arena.

Sharapova was just on her way to Manila, airborne, when organizers of the event offering $1 million to the champion team held a press conference at Edsa Shangri-La.

Andy Murray checked in earky as well as Serena Williams. (Related story on A-26)

It’s the first time that tennis superstars like Sharapova, Murray and Williams will converge in Manila, not just to have their picture taken with fans but to play.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, tennis stars like Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl came to Manila for exhibition matches.

This time, it’s a bigger bunch of stars that will be in town. Four teams with star-studded lineups are in the inaugural staging of the IPTL that needed five years to make.

Murray and Sharapova will lead the Manila Mavericks squad that will include Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Kirsten Flipkens, Daniel Nestor, Carlos Moya and the Philippines’ own, Treat Huey.

Three other teams will crowd the Mavericks for the $1 million top prize. They are the Singapore Slammers, Indian Aces and UAE Royals which will host their own legs until the 13th of December.

Williams will spearhead the Singapore Slammers, together with Andre Agassi, Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt, Nick Kyrgios, Daniela Hantuchova, Bruno Soares and Patrick Rafter.

For the Indian Aces, suiting up are Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, Gael Monfils, Ana Ivanovic, Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Rohan Santoro. The UAE Royals will have Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Malek Jaziri, Nenad Zimonjik, Goran Ivanisevic, Kristina Mladenovic and Marin Cilic.

Federer, Sampras, Agassi and Djokovic will not play the Manila leg but will have to be in two of the three other legs of their choices.

Action starts at 4 p.m. today with the Singapore Slammers taking on Indian Aces. For the 7:30 p.m. main match it will be the Manila Mavericks against the UAE Royals.

There’s completion in men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and legends’ singles.

It will be Murray vs Cilic, Sharapova vs Mladenovic, Huey and Nestor against Cilic and Nenad, Huey and Flipkens against Mladenovic and Nenad, then Moya against Ivanisevic.