The Oue Singapore Slammers has recovered from their defeat yesterday by producing a duo of shock wins against the Philippine Mavericks to clinch the 24-22 victory.
The match got underway with the men’s legend singles. Mark Philippoussis fired five aces and ten winners past Carlos Moya to give the Philippine Mavericks the early lead of 6-4 after 35 minutes in what was the longest set of the encounter. The 39-year-old Australian made a brief return to the ATP Tour earlier this year at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport where he reached the quarter-finals in the doubles competition.
It was expected that the Mavericks will increase the lead in the second set when world No.1 Serena Williams faced Czech world No.11 Karolina Pliskova. It was however not to be as Williams was stunned 6-4, by the 23-year-old to bring the Singapore Slammers back into contention. The absence of recent match play has clearly had a negative impact on the 21-time Grand Slam champion, who produced 3 double faults and 13 unforced errors. It was the second time that Williams have lost within a week after losing to Caroline Wozniacki in an exhibition match.
The match was a roller-coaster journey for both teams. With the score at 10-10, it was the Mavericks turn to shock a world No.1. In the men’s doubles French duo Richard Gasquet and Edouard Roger-Vasselin cruised past top doubles player Marcelo Melo and Dustin Brown 6-4 after 26 minutes. The Frenchmen produced 9 winners and just 3 unforced errors.
Fortunately for Brazilian tennis fans Melo redeemed himself in the following set. Pairing up with Belinda Bencic for the mixed doubles set, they defeated Roger-Vasselin and Jamila Gajdosova 6-4 to level proceedings once again at 20-20.
The match outcome was decided in the men’s singles between Nick Kyrgios and Milos Raonic. Earlier this year Kyrgios defeated the Canadian in four sets in the third round of Wimbledon. Raonic was on course to steer the Mavericks to victory as he opened up an early 3-1 lead. The lead was then annihilated as Kyrgios produced some sublime shots to claw his way back and level at 3-3. The surged from the Australian continued as he grabbed another break to upset Raonic and secure victory for the Singapore Slammers. During the final set Kyrgios got 83% of his first serves in which is nearly twice the amount of Raonic’s (48%).
Shortly after grabbing the decisive set for his team, Kyrgios spoke about his love for the exhibition event.
“I was looking forward to this event the whole year. It is one of my favourite events of the year”. Kyrgios said.
The final match for the Singapore Slammer in Japan will be against the Micromax Indian Aces tomorrow. The Indian Aces features players such as Sam Stosur, Gael Monfils and Fabrice Santoro.
