The 2014 International Premier Tennis League season (2014 IPTL season, officially the 2014 Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways season pursuant to sponsorship agreements with The Coca-Cola Company and Qatar Airways) is the inaugural season of the professional team tennis league contested by four teams in Asia.
Competition format Four teams will compete for the IPTL Challenge Trophy and a US$1 million grand prize by earning the most points in the team standings. A team that wins a match tie is awarded four points. A team that loses a match tie but wins at least 20 games in the match earns two points. A team that loses a match tie but wins at least 10 games earns one point. Each team will play 12 matches: three at home, three on the road and six at neutral sites. Each match comprises five sets each of a different category as follows:
Men's singles Women's singles Men's doubles Mixed doubles Past champions' singles
The order of play is decided by the coach of the home team. If two teams are playing at a neutral site, then a coin toss determines which coach chooses the order of play. The first serve in the first set is determined by a coin toss. The team that served last in the last game or tiebreaker of the previous set will receive during the next set.
Each team can call a power point once in each set when receiving serve, and the next point played will count double. Effectively, a player trailing 15–0 can directly get to 15–30 by winning the power point.
Games are played to four points using no-ad scoring. Each game won by a player or doubles team adds one point to the team's score in the match. The team with the most points at the end of the five sets wins the match. Each set is won when a team is the first to reach six games won. If the score is five-games-all, a timed five-minute shoot-out will be played. The player or doubles team leading at the end of five minutes wins the set.
If the team that wins the fifth set is leading the match, the match is over. If the score is tied after one team has won the fifth set, a timed seven-minute men's singles super shoot-out is played. The result counts as a game point won. If the team that wins the fifth set is trailing in the match, the match will go to sudden-death overtime effectively extending the fifth set. If the leading team wins one game in overtime, it wins the match tie. If the trailing team wins enough games in overtime to tie the score without losing a game, a timed seven-minute men's singles super shoot-out is played to decide the winner of the match tie. A coin toss decides who serves first in the super shoot-out.
In the event that two or more teams share the highest points on the final tally, the criteria to decide the champion are Head-to-head results Number of games won Number of games lost Biggest games margin in any single match win Coin toss
Founding of the league and charter franchises Mahesh Bhupathi announced the founding of the International Premier Tennis League on 25 May 2013, in Paris. The initial plan was to start the league with six charter franchises in Asia with the inaugural season commencing in November 2014.
On 21 January 2014, IPTL announced the locations of the six charter franchises for the league's inaugural season. Five franchises would play their home matches in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai and Singapore. A sixth franchise would play its home matches in an undisclosed city in the Middle East. There was confusion surrounding the announcement. Some media outlets reported that there would be five franchises, not six as had been previously announced, and did not include the Hong Kong franchise among the five. Later news reports in February 2014, indicated that there would be five franchises including one based in Hong Kong but not one in the Middle East.
IPTL conducted its inaugural player draft on 2 March. Right up until the day before the draft, the media remained under the impression that the Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur franchises would participate in the league and that the Middle East franchise was doubtful. However, only four teams participated in the draft: Bangkok, Mumbai, Singapore and Middle East now referred to as the Dubai franchise. No mention was made by IPTL of the Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur franchises which had abruptly disappeared.
By May, the Dubai franchise was being referred to as the UAE Falcons, the Mumbai franchise had been named the Indian Aces, and the Singapore franchise was being referred to as the Singapore Lions.
On 10 May, IPTL announced that the Bangkok franchise would be moved to Manila, Philippines due to political unrest in Thailand.
On 19 June, an IPTL press release revealed the owners of the four franchises to the general public. The owner of the Indian franchise, Micromax Informatics Ltd. proved to be the reason the team was no longer called the Mumbai franchise, because it preferred to have the team play its home matches in New Delhi. A group called PVP Ventures led by entrepreneur Prasad V Potluri () and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar had been the original franchise owners with a plan to play home matches in Mumbai. While league managing director Bhupathi said PVP Ventures had been replaced by Micromax, because PVP missed a payment deadline, PVP said it had withdrawn from the league due to lack of clarity over how IPTL's business model was progressing and disagreements over player contracts. PVP did not want the team to be solely responsible for payment of player salaries and favored the league being obligated as well.
By June, the Manila franchise had been named the Manila Mavericks, the Falcons had become the UAE Royals and the Lions had become the Singapore Slammers.
Summary of the evolution of the charter franchise names Bangkok → Manila → Manila Mavericks Hong Kong → franchise abandoned Kuala Lumpur → franchise abandoned Middle East → Dubai → UAE Falcons → UAE Royals Mumbai → India → Indian Aces Singapore → Singapore Lions → Singapore Slammers
Inaugural draft For the inaugural draft, each team was subject to a salary cap of US$10 million. Players who had expressed a willingness to participate were selected by the league and placed into categories. Teams could bid on these players with the player signing with the highest bidder in an auction-style format. Bids would be taken on 28 players in which the teams expressed interest in signing including players not categorized by IPTL. Each team participating in the draft was required to sign at least six players and could not sign more than ten.
Players by category Players were placed into the following categories:
Men Category Player Icon players Andre Agassi Novak Djokovic Roger Federer Andy Murray Pete Sampras Stan Wawrinka Category A Tomáš Berdych David Ferrer Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Category B Richard Gasquet Tommy Haas Lleyton Hewitt John Isner Gaël Monfils Milos Raonic Category C Marcos Baghdatis Alexandr Dolgopolov Fabio Fognini Jerzy Janowicz Philipp Kohlschreiber Feliciano López Fernando Verdasco Category D Kevin Anderson Somdev Devvarman Lu Yen-hsun Marinko Matošević Sam Querrey Janko Tipsarević Dmitry Tursunov Past champions Michael Chang Juan Carlos Ferrero Goran Ivanišević Carlos Moyá Mark Philippoussis Patrick Rafter Fabrice Santoro Rainer Schüttler Doubles players Rohan Bopanna Mariusz Fyrstenberg Robert Lindstedt Marc López Marcin Matkowski Marcelo Melo Daniel Nestor Alexander Peya Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Bruno Soares Nenad Zimonjić
Women Category Player Icon players Maria Sharapova Serena Williams Caroline Wozniacki Category A Agnieszka Radwańska Category B Ana Ivanovic Sloane Stephens Samantha Stosur Category C Sara Errani Daniela Hantuchová Martina Hingis Jelena Janković Angelique Kerber Svetlana Kuznetsova Category D Alizé Cornet Kirsten Flipkens Hsieh Su-wei Sabine Lisicki Kristina Mladenovic Sania Mirza Flavia Pennetta Francesca Schiavone Donna Vekić
Draft results Four charter franchises (Bangkok, Dubai, Indian Aces and Singapore) participated in the draft held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 2 March 2014.
Category Bangkok Dubai Indian Aces Singapore Men Icon players Andy Murray Novak Djokovic Rafael Nadal Andre Agassi Pete Sampras Category A Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Tomáš Berdych Category B Gaël Monfils Lleyton Hewitt Category C Category D Janko Tipsarević Past champions Carlos Moyá Goran Ivanišević Fabrice Santoro Patrick Rafter Doubles players Daniel Nestor Nenad Zimonjić Rohan Bopanna Bruno Soares Uncategorized Malek Jaziri Nick Kyrgios Women Icon players Maria Sharapova Caroline Wozniacki Serena Williams Category A Category B Ana Ivanovic Category C Martina Hingis Daniela Hantuchová Category D Kirsten Flipkens Sania Mirza Notes
Event chronology 25 May 2013: Mahesh Bhupathi announced the formation of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) with the inaugural season commencing in November 2014. 21 January 2014: IPTL announced the six charter franchises will be based in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Singapore and an undisclosed city in the Middle East. 2 March: IPTL conducted its inaugural player draft. The Bangkok, Mumbai, Singapore and Middle East (now referred to as Dubai) franchises participated. No mention was made by IPTL of previously announced Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur franchises which abruptly disappeared. 10 May: The Dubai franchise is referred to as the UAE Falcons. The Mumbai franchise is named the Indian Aces. The Singapore franchise is referred to as the Singapore Lions. 10 May: IPTL announced that the Bangkok franchise has moved to Manila, Philippines. 19 June: With the announcement of the franchise owners, it is revealed that Micromax has replaced PVP Ventures as the owner of the Indian Aces, and the team will play its home matches in New Delhi, not in Mumbai as had been originally planned. 25 June: The Manila franchise was named the Manila Mavericks. The Singapore Lions had their name changed to the Singapore Slammers. The UAE Falcons had their name changed to the UAE Royals. 22 September: The Aces announced that Rafael Nadal will not play due to an injury. As a replacement, the Aces signed Roger Federer. 28 November: The Indian Aces defeated the Singapore Slammers, 26–16, in the first match in IPTL history. Rohan Bopanna served the first point of the league's inaugural match. 30 November: The Indian Aces defeated the UAE Royals, 28–20, in a matchup of two previously unbeaten teams. The Aces improved their record to 3 wins and 0 losses and moved into first place in the league standings. 13 December: The Indian Aces are season champions after finishing with 8 wins and 4 losses and 39 points overall. The UAE Royals finish second, the Manila Mavericks finish third and the Singapore Slammers end in last place.
Results table References:
Abbreviation and Color Key:Indian Aces (IND) • Manila Mavericks (MAN) • Singapore Slammers (SIN) • UAE Royals (UAE) Win Loss Home Away NeutralTeamMatch123456789101112Nov 28Nov 29Nov 30Dec 2Dec 3Dec 4Dec 6Dec 7Dec 8Dec 11Dec 12Dec 13 Indian Aces (2014 season)SIN MAN UAE UAE SIN MAN MAN SIN UAE SIN MAN UAE26–1624–1528–2030–1123–2420–2526–2526–1622–2928–2428–1315–29 Manila Mavericks (2014 season)UAE IND SIN SIN UAE IND IND UAE SIN UAE IND SIN24–2915–2427–1929–2121–2625–2025-2627–2423–1725–2623–28 30–15 Singapore Slammers (2014 season)IND UAE MAN MAN IND UAE UAE IND MAN IND UAE MAN 16–2622–2819–2721–2924–2327–2516–2916–2617–2324–2823–21 15–30 UAE Royals (2014 season) MAN SIN IND IND MAN SIN SIN MAN IND MAN SIN IND 29–2428–2220–2811–3026–2125–2729–1624–2729–2226–2521–23 29–15
Standings Standings are determined by points with four points awarded for each match won, two points awarded for each match lost in which te team won 20 or more games and one point awarded for each match lost in which the team won between 10 and 19 games. In case of a tie in point, teams are placed by games won percentage.