The second annual International Premier Tennis League will begin on Wednesday, December 2 in Kobe, Japan. Five teams are taking part in the IPTL, with the newly-created Japan Warriors hosting the first stop of five.
So what is the IPTL? Straight from the league website:
“The Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) brings together current champions, tennis legends and upcoming talent in a format that’s never been seen before. Created to fulfill the increasing demand for top-level tennis in Asia, it’s the first city-based professional league in the world, played in the respective countries. Four teams participated in the inaugural season that kicked off in 2014 with Micromax Indian Aces walking away as the first ever IPTL winners.”
More than 80 players were part of the pool from which the 2015 draft was conducted on April 12 in Dubai. They were allocated to the five teams–four of which are returning franchises in addition to new Japan squad. The returning teams are the Indian Aces, OUE Singapore Slammers, Philippine Mavericks, and OBI UAE Royals.
Rosters
Japan Warriors: Kei Nishikori, Maria Sharapova, Leander Paes, Marat Safin, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Kurumi Nara
Indian Aces: Rafael Nadal, Gael Monfils, Fabrice Santoro, Ivan Dodig, Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna
Philippine Mavericks: Serena Williams, Milos Raonic, Richard Gasquet, Sabine Lisicki, Jarmila Gajdosova, Treat Huey, Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Mark Philippoussis
Singapore Slammers: Carlos Moya, Belinda Bencic, Karolina Pliskova, Marcelo Melo, Nick Kyrgios, Dustin Brown, Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray
UAE Royals: Roger Federer, Tomas Berdych, Marin Cilic, Ana Ivanovic, Kristina Mladenovic, Goran Ivanisevic, Daniel Nestor
Schedule
*each stop consists of six total matches–two per day for three days
December 2-4: Kobe, Japan
December 6-8: Manila, Philippines
December 10-12: New Delhi, India
December 14-16: Dubai, UAE
December 18-20: Singapore, Malaysia
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Kyrgios-Wawrinka on the same team…….
Pierre hugues Herbert’s Instagram says he’s playing for the Japan warriors… So confused 😕
he probably does
these arent the full rosters
Oooh Stan and nick on same team uh oh.
How can you not like The Royals…Fed and Ana!!!!
!!!!!!
Djokovic has withdrawn from IPTL.
Also pulled out of Abu Dhabi.
Novak was never going to AD this year; the line up was settled a few weeks ago as Rafa, Stan, Ferru, Tsonga, Raonic and Anderson.
Rafa and Raonic were the 2 players featured on the flyer months ago. If Djoko was in the lineup he would have been on the flyer instead of Raonic.
That’s what I meant. He decided some time ago not to play AD.
Rafa will play 2 matches in Manila and 2 in Delhi. He confirmed it in his interview in Madrid on Tuesday (in Spanish).
If, as some have described it, the WTF is a glorified expo the IPTL is a publicity pantomime. I tried hard last year to fathom it out and gave up in dispair.
ed, hope this helps:
Competition format[edit]
All IPTL matches conform to the rules of tennis and code of conduct laid down by the International Tennis Federation. A 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 match score without losing a game, a timed seven-minutte men’s singles super shoot-out is played to decide the winner of the match tie. A coin toss decides who serves first in super shoot-outs.
During IPTL matches, a shot clock keeps track of the countdown between points and during the change overs. There will be a maximum of 20 seconds between each game point and a maximum of three minutes between each set.
Each team can call for a coach’s time out once during each set. Each time out is limited to a maximum duration of 60 seconds.
Each team can make one player substitution per set except a team with the overall match lead in the final set. If a player on a team with the overall match lead gets injured during the fifth set, he or she cannot be replaced. The team trailing in the match is credited with enough games won to tie the overall match score and send it to a super shoot-out. Players removed from a set for a substitute may play in later sets in the match.
The team that wins a match tie has four points added to its total in the team standings. If the losing team accumulates at least 20 game points, it receives two points in the team standings. If the losing team accumulates at least 10 but less than 20 game points, it receives one point in the team standings. Losing teams that earn less than 10 game points do not receive any points in the team standings.
The team with the most points throughout the season is declared the IPTL champion. 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
The IPTL champions will receive the IPTL Challenge Trophy along with a grand prize of US$1,000,000.[14]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Premier_Tennis_League
those are last year’s rules
Dang kyrgios played really well I know it’s an exho but still he hit 15 winners and 2 unforced errors and crushed berdych 6-2
I’d like to like Kyrgios because he has incredible raw talent.
But he needs to mature a whole lot for that to happen. Not sure he ever will. Monfils never could get his head on straight.
he hit a pretty sick forehand that he posted on his Instagram
Saw that too. It was destroyed. I don’t even care that his attitude hasn’t been the greatest he seems to be getting better and imo he’s a boss.
Good for the game
Not when he can only turn it on 10% of the year.
A boss is a full time job.
IS Ray Rice “good for the game”?
Was Sean Avery “good for the game”?
That’s all I will say on the matter.
Man needs to grow up.
May help Rafa speed up his serve with a forced 20 second shot clock.
Wow! The site has been totally revamped! I had some trouble logging back in.
its work in progress
Why is my comment awaiting moderation? I had to register again to get on the site. This is confusing!
test
Head scratch. Another site revamp to master
it will be worth it!
Whoops. My first mistake was to inadvertently give my full name instead my screen name.
If the IPTL is in exho with its own set of rules does this mean it is is not responsible in any way to the ATP or ITF?
I can understand the attraction for the lower ranked players but why the already hard pressed financially secure top players give up their precious free time is a mystery unless it’s their sponsors who put pressure on them to do so.
#Another head scratching moment
ed, the top players are paid money you can’t refuse in appearance fees.
Ricky, have you got rid of the Social Page’?
They introduced Dustin Brown as the player who beat Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. I mean, why can’t they give it a rest? No wonder Rafa has a target on his back; there is so much to be gained by beating him. Djoker, Fed or Murray don’t seem to have that effect.
That’s because Fedole rarely lose to one hit wonders in slam early rounds.
If Stakhovsky played IPTL or similar, his defeat over Fed at Wimbledon would be mentioned in his intro.
The only reason Brown is invited to IPTL is because of his credentials for beating Rafa. Why is Stakhovsky not invited?
no, Brown is box office
Only since he beat Rafa. Brown wasn’t invited last year, was he? He hadn’t beaten Rafa then.
Melo, Pouille and Huey were invited last year just to name a few and they never beat Rafa.
Imagine that!
Somebodies are NObodies to the crowd without mentioning Rafa! 😆
No more social pages???
Now we will have nothing left to discuss except tennis.
Hilarious!!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I wonder whether the IPTL is tennis…