The star studded DBS Singapore Slammers finally won their first match of the IPTL with a 24-23 win over the Micromax Indian Aces who are first on the leader board! The UAE Royals also managed to turn it around to beat the Manila Mavericks 26-21.
It took awhile, but tennis fans started to get into the format of the IPTL and the Singaporean fans has more to cheer. With a bigger prize purse on the line, will we see the DBS Singapore Slammers turn the tide and make a bid to be able to win the league?
Earlier today, Andre Agassi joined by Ana Ivanovic and Gael Monfils joined forces to Rally For Hope to raise money for charity, in which 120 highest pledges of minimum S$100 to the Rainbow Centre gets to rally with the three stars.
International Premier Tennis League 2014: What you need to know
Why is there a countdown between points? Red and yellow towels being thrown on the court, Happiness Powerpoint and Coaches’ Time-Out, what’s that?
What is the International Premier Tennis League?
Aiming to #BreakTheCode, the IPTL is an exhibition match that features past and present champions as well as upcoming talents in a new format, to garner new tennis fans around the world which is refreshing, television friendly and non-repetitive – a concept that is a brainchild of Mahesh Bhupathi, India’s tennis star.
Currently consisting of four franchise teams; DBS Singapore Slammers, UAE Royals, Manila Mavericks and Indian Aces, there are a total of 28 players. And there might be plans to increase the number of teams in its second run in 2015.
Each team will compete in a round-robin format of five sets, with the order of play to be decided by the home team and the team line-up is given to the umpire 45-minutes before the match starts – each set will be
– Men’s Singles
– Women’s Singles
– Mixed Doubles
– Men’s Doubles
– Men’s Legend Singles
The unique scoring format and changes
With no ad-scoring in each game, each set is played to six games with a 5-minute shoot-out if the score is 5-all, with the teams getting a point each for each game won. After five sets, the team with the most games won, wins the match and will receive 4 points.
For the losing team, the team that wins more than 20 games – 2 points, more than 10 games – 1 point and if less than 10 games – 0 points. The team that has the most number of points after the league has ended will win the league.
Additional changes that make the IPTL unique and refreshing is a countdown timer to make the game faster and more challenging. Players get 20 seconds between points, 45 seconds between change-overs, 60 seconds for coaches’ time-outs and 3 minutes after each set. Any violation when the timer reaches 0 will result in a point loss by the violating team.
To call a Happiness Powerpoint – indicating that the next point counts as double, players can throw a red towel onto the court or to call a Coaches’ Time-Out, players can throw a yellow towel onto the court. Each team can only call a Powerpoint or a Coaches’ Time-Out once each set.
Now that you are more familiar with the format of play, you can now enjoy the exhibition match without wondering what is going on!
Story by Cedric Tang
