Rafa Nadal beat Roger Federer twice in the men’s doubles and in the men’s singles at the IPTL (International Tennis Premier League) in the third leg of the Asian Exhibition Tournament at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Dehli. Federer, who represented the UAE Royals, played alongside his doubles teammate Marin Cilic in the 6-4 defeat against Rohan Bopanna and Rafa Nadal who played for the Indian Aces.
Nadal edged Federer 7-4 in the shoot-out in the closing men’s singles match. Both players traded two breaks apiece.
Nadal earned seven break point chances, while Federer brought five break point opportunities.
Federer got the second break as Nadal was serving for the set at 5-4 to draw level to 5-5.
The match was decided by the shoot-out where Nadal cruised to 4-0 but Federer clawed his way back to 4-5. Nadal won the final two points to come out on top with 7-4.
The Indian Aces beat the UAE Royals 30-19 after winning all five sets.
In the mixed doubles match which opened the match between the Indian Royals and the UAE Royals Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza beat Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic 6-4 in 30 minutes to give the win to the home team.
The Indian Royals claimed the second win thanks to Agnieszka Radwanska who converted all her three break point chances to cruise to 6-1 over Kristina Mladenovic in 20 minutes in the women’s singles.
Fabrice Santoro representing the Indian Royals won the men’s legend’s singles over 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic with 7-4 in the shoot-out. Ivanisevic took a 5-3 lead but Santoro bounced back to win the match at the tie-break.
Bopanna teamed up with Rafa Nadal in the 6-4 win in the men’s doubles match over Marin Cilic and Roger Federer who had to save six break points.
In the first match played earlier today the Singapore Slammers edged the Legendary Japan Warriors 24-22 in the first match on Saturday in New Dehli.
Thomas Enqvist beat Singapore Slammers’ Carlos Moya 6-2 with two breaks of serve in the opening men’s legend’s singles to give the Japan Warriors the lead
The Slammers fought back in the mixed doubles where Karolina Pliskova and Dustin Brown beat Leander Paes and Kirsten Flipkens 6-4. There were 10 break point chances in this set. Pliskova and Brown converted two break point opportunites to take the set.
After three breaks in the first three games Belinda Bencic representing the Singapore Slammers cruised to 6-1 over Flipkens.
Leander Paes and Phillips Kohlschreiber earned a win to the Japan Warriors by defeating Singapore Slammers’ Marcelo Melo and Nick Kyrgios 6-4.
The Slammers were one point ahead before the final set. Kohlschreiber needed to beat Kyrgios in the men’s singles by two games to win the first match but Kyrgios edged Kohlschreiber 6-5 after 32 minutes.
The IPTL will continue next week in Dubai from 14th to 16th December before the final between the first two ranked teams in Singapore from 18th to 20th December
