Aces in cruise mode

In the women’s singles, World No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska proved too hot for Jarmila Gajdosova, taking just 17 minutes before coach Fabrice Santoro extended the lead to 21-4 in the men’s legends singles. Santoro defeated Mark Philippoussis 6-1.The men’s doubles game saw a duel between Aces duo Nadal-Bopanna and Mavericks’ Huey and Eduard Roger-Vasselin before the home team clinched it 6-4 to keep their winning run intact. The fifth set saw Nadal race to a 4-0 in no time but Roger-Vasselin pulled up his socks to level at 4-4. Nadal then had to dig deep to prevail 6-4.

Earlier, Debutants Japan Warriors finally tasted success when they came from behind to beat UAE Royals 24-21 in the opening rubber of the day. Ana Ivanovic, turning out for the Royals this time, gave her team a winning start by taking the opening set 6-2 against Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in 24 minutes. The buzz about the event that was evident last year was missing this time as the stadium was sparsely filled on the day, though India Test captain Virat Kohli was in attendance to cheer his tennis stars. Goran Ivanisevic then won the men’s legends singles for UAE Royals as he eased past Thomas Enqvist 6-4 in 24 minutes.

“I don’t consider playing IPTL matches as an exhibition. It is serious tennis for me and I always go on court prepared. I love playing in India the crowd is loud here. But this time I am seeing the stands are empty but I hope it will be filled in coming days. Definitely for the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal match,” Ivanisevic said.

The match was going as per Royals’ plan but little did they knew that Leander Paes and Pierre-Hugues Herbert would change the course of the encounter. Paes-Herbert were excellent on serve and took just 22 minutes to outclass Tomas Berdych and Daniel Nestor 6-3. Japan then regrouped and made sure of the result by winning the final two matches to clinch the rubber.

As part of the tie-up, Indian talent will be scouted and trained in Mancor, the home town of Nadal. Nadal, who has been plagued with injuries and also had surgery to remove his appendix earlier, rallied in the latter part of this year to finish as world number five. The 14-time Grand Slam winner sank to world number 10 this year after losing in the French Open quarter-finals, before suffering early exits from Wimbl-edon and the US Open.

“2015 has been not the best season... but in the last three months, I finished much better and I’m happy with the way I’m playing now. I need to keep going the same way that I finished the 2015 season. It is difficult to come back from injury. Sometimes you recover faster… but sometimes you take more time. ,” he said. Asked if he could add another Grand Slam trophy to his collection, Nadal said he can’t say. “I don’t know when that is going to happen, I don’t know if that is going to happen. All I need to is to play well.”