Singapore: The Lion City came out in full strength for the opening match of the Coca-Cola IPTL 2015 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium here today. Tennis fans, young and old, were on their seats well before time eager to see tennis’ newest innovation as it makes its last stop here in Singapore, after a 5-city swing that started in Kobe on 2nd December followed by Manila, Delhi and Dubai. With three teams fighting for the second spot, all matches are now going to see close finishers. The Legendari Japan Warriors had a smashing victory today, winning 4 sets out of 5, to close the match 29-15 over Philippine Mavericks.

Match Summary:

-Opening for the Japan Warriors, Marat Safin brought alive memories of his legendary past as he won the set 6-3 over James Blake, his big serves towering through

-Young Kurumi Nara was the cynosure of all eyes as she handed a crushing defeat to Jarmila Gajdosova. The score line reading 6-1 in just 21 short minutes

-The Warriors now on a roll, Lucic-Baroni/Paes came out for the mixed doubles and did some more damage when they beat Gajdosova/Roger-Vasselin 6-2, the experience of Paes on the nets coming in good for the team

-Men’s’ doubles saw even more exciting tennis action with Roger-Vasselin/Huey stepping it up for the Mavericks against Herbert/Paes, taking the set right down to the wire, with an exciting shoot-out thatwent 6-5 in favour of the Mavericks

-Men’s singles saw Herbert overpowering the very tall Ivo Karlovic, despite 5 aces from the Croat, the Frenchman took the set away 6-3 for the Warriors

What the Players said:

Leander Paes: “I love this format of tennis. It was a great win today. I like playing with Herbert, he’s a great player, and has been in superb form this whole IPTL.”

Match Scores: