World number 1 Rafael Nadal is amongst a handful of top Tennis players from around the world who are excited about the International Tennis Premier League which will make it’s debut this year in November.
Indian Tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi who will retire after the Wimbledon this year, has been credited for the all new concept that this tournament brings with it, and he tweeted a video on his official twitter account where all the big names in Tennis express their excitement in playing the tournament.
Apart from Nadal and Djokovic, you can also see the likes of Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewitt, Janko Tipsarevic, Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, legends Pat Rafter and Andre Agassi appearing in the video. And from the women’s section, World number one Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Daniela Hantuchova share their thoughts on the tournament.
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Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova are the notable absentees among the big names.
One particular thing all the stars are excited about is the all new format where each match will consist of a set each for Men’s singles Tennis, Women’s singles Tennis, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and if needed, a legends singles tie break.
Bhupathi launched the tournament alongside the legendary Boris Becker in Paris last month. It will be played between the 28th of November and the 13th of December across Manila, Dubai, Mumbai and Singapore. Manila was a last minute replacement for Bangkok because of some security concerns.
The tournament will be held across these four cities and players have been assigned for all the four teams. They were picked on a draft in which India’s Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza were picked up by the Mumbai franchise which is named as Indian Aces. Nine time French Open Champion Nadal is the star name on the team.
Djokovic will be playing for the UAE Falcons which will have the legendary Martina Hingis in it. Serena Williams and Andre Agassi will be a part of the Singapore Lions with Murray and Azarenka leading the charge of Team Manila.
And it was recently announced that Indian Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar will be one of the four owners of the Singapore based franchise. Gavaskar revealed that he was a huge fan of Tennis and has been following the careers of Bhupathi and Paes closely over the last two decades.
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