 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Temperamental Australian star Nick Kyrgios provided the perfect finish after veteran Carlos Moya's masterclass performance as Singapore Slammers hammered Philippine Mavericks 30-22 in their opening match of the International Premier Tennis League's India leg in Delhi on Friday.
The Slammers won all the five sets of the match – three of them decided via the tie-breaker -- on the second day of IPTL's India leg.
It began with the legends' singles in which Australian power-server Mark Philippoussis, who is Mavericks' coach-cum-player, squared off against Spanish star Moya.
Philippoussis was slower off the blocks against his more aggressive opponent, who showed just why some players are refusing to call the IPTL exhibition tennis.
A bundle of energy when it came to chasing down Philippoussis' serve and returns on the baseline, Moya was evidently more creative, closer to the nets as well.
Moya enthralled the sparse crowd with some exquisite strokeplay in his 6-4 win over the Australian, nicknamed 'Scud' in his prime for a booming serve.
Ironically, it was his serve which let Philippoussis down today with a double fault giving the match to Moya. In fact, the 39-year-old seemed no match for his contemporary, who is a former French Open champion.
Singapore built on the lead by winning the mixed doubles and women's singles sets, taking a mammoth lead.
In mixed doubles, Karolina Pliskova and Dustin Brown defeated Jarmila Gajdosova and Treat Huey lost 5-6 (2) in a close contest via tie-breaker.
However, Swiss Belinda Bencic hardly broke a sweat as she sailed past Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3.
The men's doubles set was also clinched by Singapore with Huey and Edouard Roger-Vasselin losing 5-6 (5) in a tie-breaker to Kyrgios and Marcelo Melo.
The 20-year-old Kyrgios, considered the bad boy of Australian tennis for his often aggressive outbursts and antics, then sealed a perfect victory for his team by edging past Vasselin 6-5 (2), relying on his powerful serve to bail him out against the gritty Frenchman.
Vasselin did manage to push Kyrgios on the back-foot on a few occasions but failed to deliver the knockout shots, which could have unsettled Kyrgios. In the end, the doubles specialist lost the set on a double fault.