UAE Royals favored to rule IPTL

MANILA, Philippines - Starring Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic, the UAE Royals stand as the team to beat in this year’s International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) which fires off on Dec. 2 in Japan.

That’s on paper.

The largest sports website in India, Sportskeeda or SK, showed the numbers that should install the UAE Royals as the favorites in the star-studded team event offering a top prize of $1 million.

Aside from Federer and Ivanovic, who helped the Indian Aces win the inaugural IPTL last year, the UAE Royals will also count on Goran Ivanisevic, Marin Cilic, Daniel Nestor, Kristina Mladenovic and Tomas Berdych.

There are 34 Grand Slam titles from within the UAE Royals, 17 of them courtesy of Federer.

Ivanovic is the 2008 French Open champion; Ivanisevic the 2001 Wimbledon winner; Cilic the 2014 US Open titlist. Nestor has 12 Grand Slam titles in doubles while Mladenovic has two.

The Philippine Mavericks lead the Grand Slam count with 34, majority of them won by Williams, now the team skipper with her 21 singles and 15 doubles crowns.

The Japan Warriors, led by Maria Sharapova, are next with 28 Grand Slam titles, followed by the Indian Aces of Rafael Nadal with 22 and the Singapore Slammers of Novak Djokovic with 12.

Six of the seven players for the UAE Royals have won the Grand Slam, except for Berdych, a finalist at Wimbledon in 2010.

The Japan Warriors and Indian Aces each have four Grand Slam champions while the Philippine Mavericks and Singapore Slammers have three each.

All players for the UAE Royals have at one point in their careers been listed in the top 10.

The IPTL is a team event, and the UAE Royals can count these numbers.

“They are genuine favorites to win the title in the second season of the league,” said Sportskeeda of the UAE Royals, owned in part by Virat Kohli, one of the great names in cricket in India.