Singapore Slammers are IPTL-2 champs

Singapore: Stan Wawrinka showed his class in both singles and doubles to lead the Singapore Slammers to victory in the International Premier Tennis League Season 2 final in front of a delighted home crowd at the Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

Slammers overcame the Indian Aces 26-21 in a gripping finale. Carlos Moya got the home side off to a perfect start with a 6-4 victory over French shot-maker Fabrice Santoro in the Legends Singles, the Spanish veteran coming out on top of five straight breaks of serve after he had opened a 3-2 lead.

Swiss starlet Belinda Bencic stretched the advantage by a game after the 18-year-old fought off a gritty challenge from Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova to claim the women’s singles, 6-5.

“I was lucky that Charlie (Moya) won and did a great job and I could also make a lead,” Bencic said. “It’s not much but we will try to keep winning the matches,” the Swiss player further added.

The Aces, however, struck back in the mixed doubles with their strong Indian pairing of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna storming to a 6-2 victory over a shell-shocked Dustin Brown and Karolina Pliskova to put the defending champions 15-14 ahead.

Wawrinka, the highest-ranked player in the final of the tournament, was then called on to turn the tie around and he duly obliged, helping the Slammers reclaim the lead with a 6-3 win over Bernard Tomic before teaming up with Marcelo Melo to seal the contest.