IPTL: Singapore Slammers retains title

Singapore Slammers steamrollered the Indian Aces 30-14 to the clinch 2016 Coca Cola International Premier Tennis League title at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Sunday evening.

Published : Dec 11, 2016 19:34 IST , Hyderabad

Singapore Slammers celebrate after winning the IPTL title.
Singapore Slammers celebrate after winning the IPTL title.
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Singapore Slammers celebrate after winning the IPTL title.

Singapore Slammers steamrollered the Indian Aces 30-14 to the clinch 2016 Coca Cola International Premier Tennis League title at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Sunday evening. Defending champions were simply unstoppable, winning every match in the final today.

In the match of the legends, Carlos Moya epitomized economy of effort against a power-driven Mark Philippoussis. If the Spaniard’s low profile presence was at its best, his control was no less. Diagonal drops caught his Australian adversary on the wrong foot time and again. The ‘Scud’ had a treble of aces but Moya a superior first serve percentage.

The majestic Majorcan was devastating on the power point that broke Philippoussis in the third game. Moya’s swift return of serve left little time for the 1998 US Open finalist to recover from his follow-through, the latter’s backhander rising no higher than presenting sponsor Qatar Airways’s flex at the base of the net. A mere pump of the fist was Moya’s expression of exultation for some extraordinary winners.

In exactly half an hour, Kiki Bertens demolished Kirsten Flipkens and Sania Mirza, who stepped up as substitute in the last game, 6-3. Bertens wrested serve in the second and fourth games but zealously guarded her own.

Broken in the fourth, Marcos Baghdatis exacted revenge in the next and never looked back against Feliciano Lopez. If the Cypriot was a tad erratic in the early stages, he more than made up for it with some feather-touch drops that left the southpaw Spaniard with no chance.

The score:

Final: Singapore Slammers bt Indian Aces 30-14 (Carlos Moya bt Mark Philippoussis 6-4, Kiki Bertens bt Kirsten Flipkens 6-3, Marelo Melo/Bertens bt Ivan Dodig 6-1, Melo/Nick Kyrgios bt Dodig/Feliciano Lopez 6-2, Marcos Baghdatis bt Lopez 6-4)

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