Champions Tennis League: Marshall law in City

At 17-17, the winner of the set would go on to win the match and with it, the title. And Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis held his nerve to win the men’s singles set against Ivo Karlovic 5-4 (5/3) and took the Punjab Marshalls to a nerve-jangling 22-21 victory over the Hyderabad Aces, much to the disappointment of the home crowd.

Baghdatis, impressively enough, served better than the big-serving Karlovic to clinch the decider for his side. It was a final to remember as four of the five sets were decided in the tie-breaker.

Earlier, the hosts lost the first two sets by the narrowest of margins but bounced back splendidly through the mixed doubles pair of Martina Hingis and Karlovic to take a 13-12 lead going into the last two sets — the men’s doubles and singles clashes.

The Marshalls wrested the initiative back through a hotly-contested men’s doubles clash wherein the pair of Baghdatis and Saketh Myneni edged past Karlovic-Jeevan Nedun-chezhiyan 5-4 (5/3), taking the score to 17-17.

The captains of the two sides — Thomas Johansson for Hyderabad and Greg Rusedski for the Marshalls — kicked off proceedings in entertaining fashion with the Legends singles. The clash was a mixture of raw power and delicate slices. Both players proved more than a match for each other, neither relinquishing his serve as the set went to the tie-breaker. Rusedski nosed ahead to take the Marshalls 5-4 in front.

Hingis then walked out onto the court to thunderous applause for her women’s singles encounter against Elina Svitolina. Cheers turned to groans quite frequently as the ball landed out of bounds as often as it landed in. While Svitolina eventually took the set 5-4 (5/4) in the tie breaker, it was Hingis, in fact, who lost the set. The Swiss Miss was perplexingly error-prone, as was her Ukrainian opponent. A series of unforced errors ensured an entertaining if erratic clash during the course of which both Hingis and Svitolina were broken twice.

With Svitolina’s victory, the Marshalls led 10-8.

Hingis more than made up for that when she took the court with Karlovic for the mixed doubles set against Baghdatis and Svitolina. The Croatian giant sent down several scorching, booming serves which overwhelmed the Punjab pairing. Karlovic also used his height to devastating effect as Hyderabad clinched the set 5-2 and in doing so, captured a 13-12 lead.