Indian Aces continued their winning run as they beat Manila Mavericks 24-15 on the second day of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) in Manila, on Saturday.
Having started their campaign by beating Singapore Slammers, Indian aces strengthened their position by outplaying the star-studded Mavericks side.
Opting to serve first, Mavericks captain Treay Huey decided to begin the match with legend's singles game as Fabrice Santoro of Indian Aces played against Carlos Moya.
The Spanish legend, representing Mavericks, retired hurt with groin injury at 3-1 and was replaced by Daniel Nestor, who Santoro easily beat 6-1.
The Manila boys -- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Filipino Treat Huey -- then outplayed Gael Monfils and Rohan Bopanna 6-0 to give the Mavericks a 7-6 lead over the Indian team after the end of two sets.
However, the Aces bounced back in the third set with Gael Monfils beating Andy Murray 6-4.
After leading the set at 3-4, Murray succumbed to Monfils losing the three consecutive points and eventually the set. At the end of third set, the Mavericks trailed 11-12.
The all-Indian pairing of Sania Mirza and Bopanna continued Aces' fine run as they thrashed the combine of Maria Sharapova and Andy Murray 6-1 to stretch their lead to 18-12.
Ana Ivanovic of Indian Aces then shut the door on Mavericks by getting the better of Sharapova 6-3.
After losing the mixed doubles match with huge margin, Sharapova struggled in the singles match in the fifth and final individual set.
Sharapova started off well with consecutive two aces down the line to hold the opening serve but the first break point came in the third game with Ivanovic taking a 4-1 lead.
The Russian then broke Ivanovic in the sixth game but could not win the set and eventually lost the match.
Indian Aces will next face UAE Royals, who earlier beat Singapore Slammers 3-2 in sets and 28-22 on game points.
The day started with the most-awaited match with the current men's singles players -- Marin Cilic of UAE Royals and Tomas Berdych of Singapore Slammers -- facing each other.
Cilic took an early lead by breaking Berdych in the third game before the latter grabbed the break back to make it 4-4.
But Cilic broke him back immediately to clinch the set 6-4.
In the men's doubles, the Singapore pair of Berdych and Nick Kyrgios then toppled the doubles specialists Nenad Zimonjic and Cilic of UAE 6-5, to square the set 1-1.
They were trailing a game point behind their opponents but remained rock-solid to win it in five-minutes tie-breaker.
UAE Royals once again took the upper hand when Kristina Mladenovic got the better of Daniela Hantuchova 6-1 in the women's singles.
A strong performance by 21-year-old Mladenovic put UAE in command with a 6-1 win over the World No. 57 Hantuchova.
But the mixed doubles duo of Bruno Soares and Hantuchova pulled another set back in Singapore's favour as they defeated Mladenovic and Zimonjic to narrow down the gap in game points to 17-22.
In the end, it was the former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, who gave UAE Royals their second match win of the tournament by beating twice major winner Patrick Rafter 6-5.
In the legends round, Croatia's lone Wimbledon winner and Rafter took the match till the tie-breakers, which was won by Ivanisevic comfortably.
