The Champions Tennis League which was launched last year by Vijay Amritraj’s company Second Serve and it is all set to kick off its second season with six teams. Last season the CTL was won by the Pune Marathas when they defeated Delhi Dreams in the finals. The six teams that participated last year were, Pune Marathas, Delhi Dreams, Bangalore Raptors, Punjab Marshalls, Mumbai Tennis Masters and Hyderabad Aces.
The winners of the tournament receive 1 crore as prize money and the runners up receive 50 lakhs. Some of the big names that participated last year are Martina Hingis, Leander Paes, Pat Cash, Venus Williams and the Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza.
Surprisingly, last year’s finalists Pune Marathas and Delhi Dreams and even Bangalore Raptors do not feature this year. The six teams participating this year are Mumbai, Punjab, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Raipur and Team 6 which hasn’t been named but will be decided next week between Chennai, Bangalore and Pune.
Here’s a look at which player is playing in which team:
Punjab Marshalls: Greg Rusedski, Marcos Baghdatis, Elina Svitolina and Saket Myneni
Team Hyderabad: Thomas Johansson, Ivo Karlovic, Martina Hingis and Jeevan Neduncheziyan
Team Mumbai: Richard Krajicek, Andreas Seppi, Flavia Pennetta and Sriram Balaji
Team Nagpur: Alex Corretja, Feliciano Lopez, Jelena Jankovic and Divij Sharan
Team Raipur: Thomas Muster, Kevin Anderson, Alize Cornet and Ramkumar Ramanathan
Team Six: Rainer Schuettler, Fernando Verdasco, Heather Watson and Vishnu Vardhan
CTL made waves in the first season and will hope to be bigger and better this season with bigger names being a part of it.