International Premier Tennis League Season 2: Royal flush for the Indian Aces

The atmosphere was electric with vociferous crowds, a star-studded line-up on court, foot-tapping music and colourful lights hovering all around the venue, the perfect night for the weekend.

UAE Royals’ Federer, who skipped the first two legs in Kobe and Manila, reached here only on early Saturday morning to enthrall the Delhi crowd again. A string of Bollywood stars — Lara Dutta and Riteish Deshmukh — and celebrities were also in attendance including Indian cricket team manager Ravi Shastri to name a few to watch tennis greats rubbing their shoulders.

“I played last year here and the atmosphere was electric. The match against Novak (Djokovic) was really interesting and that is why I decided to be back here,” Federer said after landing here.

Nadal, who took a day off from office on Friday, was back as Indian Aces registered third win in as many days, beating UAE Royals 30-19. Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna opened the account for home team with 6-4 win over Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor before World No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska thrashed Mladenovic 6-1 in the women’s singles set.

The men’s legends saw Aces coach Fabrice Santoro and Goran Ivanisevic fought for each point and finally Santoro emerged winner 6-5 (7-4).

Finally wait was over as Nadal and Federer crossed swords in the men’s doubles set. The Spaniard with Bopanna got the better of UAE duo Federer and Marin Cilic 6-4 to make sure Aces went with an all-win record from the fourth leg. Nadal then went on to defeat Federer 6-5 (7-5) in men’s singles.