dal, Sania to lead Indian Aces in IPTL 2015

Dubai, April 13: Indian Aces, the winners of the iugural Intertiol Premier Tennis League (IPTL), will be led by former World No.1 men’s singles player Rafael dal and current World No.1 women’s doubles player Sania Mirza.

The Indian Aces will also have Agnieszka Radwanska, Gael Monfils, Ivan Dodig, Rohan Bopan and Fabrice Santoro — all of whom were taken by the New Delhi-based franchise in the global player draft held here on Sunday for the second edition, scheduled from December 2 to 20.

In the iugural edition of the tourment 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer and 14-time Slam winner Pete Sampras were part of the Aces team.

Federer will play for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Royals this season. Sampras, however, won’t feature in this edition of the tourment.

The Aces team retained the services of Monfils, Sania, Bopan and Santoro for this edition.

dal missed his date with the Aces in the last season due to an injury which forced him to withdraw from the competition.

Also, Japan was announced as the fifth country of the tourment, who will field ‘Japan Warriors’.

“We started off to an exciting beginning in 2014. The first edition was a resounding success in terms of player and fan acceptance. TV and digital audiences enjoyed a very high level of competition and we have set a high bar for ourselves. We are confident of building on the success of last year to come back with a bigger and better product in 2015,” IPTL founder Mahesh Bhupathi said.

“Tennis is on a tremendous growth path in Asia led by Japan. The country boasts of three men’s players in the top-100. Japan coming on board as the fifth Asian country led by their top star Nishikori, proves that the league is on the right path.” IANS