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Heavyweights Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, and Patrick Rafter will represent Singapore Slammers for the home leg in the inaugural International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) to be held from December 2-4.
In addition to current women's world number one Williams and retired Agassi and Rafter, notable players include Tomas Berdych, Daniela Hantuchova, Bruno Soares, Lleyton Hewitt, Nick Kyrios, Ana Ivanovic, Eugenie Bouchard, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Goran Ivanisevic, and Carlos Moya.
The second stop of the four-city tour –- sanctioned by the Asian Tennis Federation –- promises exciting sporting competition with the Singapore Slammers vying for top honours and a US$1 million prize purse against the Manila Mavericks, Indian Aces and UAE Royals.
The IPTL brings together NBA-style entertainment and world-class tennis, featuring the best current and past champions in a team competition from November 28 to December 13. A star-studded line-up of 24 champions has committed to play in Singapore.
The event is based on a five single-set match format where every set features a different player in a different category (men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and past champions singles). The unique scoring system - in which every game counts, and the team that wins the most games from the five sets, wins the match –- is only one of many special features to keep the intensity of the tournament up, until the last point.
"I wanted to bring new ideas and innovations to tennis and expose the best players to parts of Asia which have traditionally not been featured in the tennis calendar; by creating a shorter match format, we aim to attract new fans to our sport," said IPTL founder Mahesh Bhupathi.