Innovative finals up in IPTL

MANILA, Philippines - There’s an exciting twist in the climax of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) this season. After the five teams finish the customized round-robin format, the top two placers advance to play in the final in Singapore on Dec. 20. The innovation is a unique feature of the IPTL’s second season and was conceptualized by league founder Mahesh Bhupathi.

League standings are based on the win-loss percentage of the overall games played. That means every game within a set counts. The win-loss ratios will determine the top two teams to dispute the $1 Million first prize. Last year, the Indian Aces claimed the crown by compiling a league-high 39 points on an 8-4 record with four points for every match won, two points for a loss with at least 20 games taken and a point for a loss with no less than 10 games taken and no more than 20.

So this season will put the top two elimination finishers to a head in a final duel with the usual five sets broken down into men’s singles, women’s singles, mixed doubles, men’s doubles and men’s legends singles.

The Philippine Mavericks are scheduled to play in 11 matches. From Manila, the Mavs will move to New Delhi to play India on Dec. 10 and Singapore on Dec. 11. Then, they fly to Dubai to face the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Dec. 14 and India on Dec. 15. The fifth leg will be in Singapore with the Mavericks meeting Japan on Dec. 18 and the UAE Royals on Dec. 19. This season, the Mavs will play Japan, UAE and India thrice and Singapore twice.

The Mavs underwent lineup adjustments during the offseason. Gone from the inaugural campaign are Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, Carlos Moya, Daniel Nestor, Kristen Flipkens and substitute Philip Kohlscheiber. They’ve all been farmed out to different teams except for Flipkens who isn’t on any roster this year. Murray and Moya transferred to Singapore, Sharapova and Kohlscheiber to Japan and Nestor to the Royals.

During the offseason, the Philippines enlisted Borna Coric and Sabine Lisicki. They were eventually dropped to bring in Edouard Roger Vasselin and Ajla Tomljanovic. The others in the Mavs cast are legend Mark Philippoussis, Jarmila Gajdosova, Richard Gasquet, Milos Raonic, Treat Huey and Serena Williams.

The IPTL classifies its players into several categories – icon, A, B, C and D for men, A, B, C and D for women, doubles, past champion or legend and a dubious “uncategorized” class. The icons are Williams of the Philippines, Murray of Singapore, Sharapova of Japan, Roger Federer of UAE and Rafael Nadal of India. The “uncategorized” players are Pierre Hugues Herbert of Japan and Dustin Brown of Singapore. Herbert, 24, is French and lives in Switzerland. The 6-2 quarterfinalist in the 2014 Australian Open is ranked world No. 103. Brown, 30, is German of Jamaican descent and is ranked world No. 79.

In the Mavs lineup, Raonic is classified as A, Gasquet B, Vasselin C, Tomljanovic C and Gajdosova D. Huey is listed as a doubles player and Philippoussis, a past champion or legend. Aside from Raonic, the other Class A players are Stan Wawrinka of Singapore, Tomas Berdych of UAE, Kei Nishikori of Japan and Ana Ivanovic of UAE.

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic was initially listed as an icon with Singapore. But he withdrew a few weeks before the season started in Kobe, clearing the way for Murray to slide in to take his spot. Wawrinka was also enlisted for the Slammers. Murray and Wawrinka will alternate playing for Singapore during the five-leg season. Wawrinka’s Singapore teammate is 20-year-old Australian Nick Kyrgios with whom he had a run-in at the Rogers Cup in Canada this year. In their second round match, Kyrgios was found guilty of trash talking and fined $10,000 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He was also slapped a 28-day suspended sentence with a six-month expiration and a clause that an incident of physical or verbal abuse would carry a fine of $25,000 during the probation period. Kyrgios won over Wawrinka, 6-7, 6-3, 4-0 (retired) but lost to John Isner, 7-5, 6-3, in the next round.

Kyrgios, whose mother is Malaysian and father is Greek, is ranked World No. 30 compared to World No. 4 Wawrinka. Kyrgios is categorized as a C player in the IPTL along with Kohlschieber, Vasselin, Sania Mirza of India, Kristina Mladenovic of UAE and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Japan.

Manila will host a $75,000 ATP Challenger tournament next month, the first professional event to be staged here since 1990. Philippine Tennis Association vice president Randy Villanueva said he expects players ranked anywhere between No. 75 to 150 in the world to show up for the 32-man singles draw.

“As organizers, we have the prerogative of naming four wildcards for the main draw,” said Villanueva. “We can also name six wildcards to the qualifying draw of 32 out of which the top four will join the main draw. It’s possible that we’ll call on our Davis Cuppers to go to the main draw. Nino Alcantara, Jeson Patrombon, Ruben Gonzales and Treat Huey may play. We’re still studying our options. In the main draw, 24 will be automatically seeded based on their world rankings.”

Villanueva said next year’s tennis calendar will be extremely busy. The Philippines plays Kuwait in the Davis Cup in March. In April, Manila is bidding to host the Federation Cup where the Philippine women’s team has been runner-up in Group II the last two years. The Philippines came close to promotion to Group I this year after Fil-German Katharina Lehnert beat India’s No. 1 Ankita Raina in the singles but the rubber doubles match went India’s way.