International Tennis Premier League
iptlworld.com: ITS Staff - The International Premier Tennis League brought together current champions and tennis legends in a format that’s never been seen before. Created to fulfill the increasing demand for top-level tennis in Asia, it’s the first city-based professional league in the world, played across four countries. Over 80 players participated in the official draft held on 2nd March, 2014 in Dubai, drawn by the League’s innovative and competitive format. A total of 29 players were added to the 4 franchise teams – The Philippines, Singapore, India and the UAE.
The IPTL matches featured star-studded teams led by the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Marin Cilic, Ana Ivanovic, Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. The tournament featured a total of 21 Grand Slam Champions and 14 current and former World Number Ones. From 28th November to 13th December, 2014, the teams played a total of 24 matches in a round robin format . Micromax Indian Aces, who charmed tennis lovers in Manila, Singapore, New Delhi and Dubai, were crowned champions of the inaugural Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League presented by Qatar Airways after an exhilarating last match witnessed by thousands of fans in the last leg in Dubai.
Final 2014 IPTL Standings
Team M/W/D/L/Pts
1. Micromax Indian Aces 12 8 0 4 39
2. Musafir.com UAE Royals 12 7 0 5 37
3. Manila Mavericks 12 6 0 6 35
4. DBS Singapore Slammers 12 3 0 7 24
Leg 4: Dubai UAE December 11 - 13 204
Leg 3: New Delhi December 6 - 8 2014
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras Lead Top Stars in New Delhi; Watch video highlights
Leg 2: Singapore December 2 - 4 2014
Andre Agassi Joins DBS Slammers Team in Singapore; Full results, scores, video highlights
Leg 1: Manila November 28 - 30 2014
IPTL Teams
DBS Singapore Slammers
Serena Williams, Tomas Berdych, Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi, Daniela Hantuchova, Patrick Rafter, Nick Kyrgios
Manila Mavericks
Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kirsten Flipkens, Treat Huey, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Daniel Nestor, Mark Philippoussis, Carlos Moya
Micromax Indian Aces
Roger Federer, Ana Ivanovic, Pete Sampras, Gael Monfils, Sania Mirza, Fabrice Santoro, Rohan Bopanna, Cedric Pioline
Musafir.com UAE Royals
Novak Djokovic, Marin Cilic, Caroline Wozniacki, Kristina Mladenovic, Goran Ivanisevic, Nenad Zimonjic, Malek Jaziri
#IPTL Full review: Int'l Premier Tennis League #Federer #Djokovic #BreakTheCode highlights http://t.co/eiqLHmYaAr pic.twitter.com/sdX8KrTZ0P
— ITS Tennis News (@itennisschool) December 20, 2014
IPTL Competition Format
Scoring System
Each match consists of Five (5) sets. Each set is played first to six (6) games with a 5 minute Shoot-out at 5-all. No-ad scoring applies for each game and each game won counts as one (1) point for the team's total.
Match and Sets Format
Each match features five (5) sets: Men's Singles, Women's Singles, Mixed Doubles, Men’s Doubles, Men’s Legends Singles
Order of Play
Order of play shall be determined by the home team. Team lineup of players shall be submitted to the umpire 45 minutes before the match begins.
Match Winner
The team that wins the most games accumulated from all five sets shall be declared the winner of the match. If a match is tied after five sets, the Super Shoot-out determines the match winner.
Team Standings:
Winner of the match receives 4 points; For the losing team, point breakdown are:
A team that wins more than 20 game points wins 2 points
A team that wins more than 10 game points wins 1 point
A team that wins less than 10 game points, in total, gets 0 points
League Winner
The team accumulating the most points in total wins the League. In case of a tie in team standings, the team with the most match wins is declared the winner, according to the following criteria, in this order: Head to head standing; Number of games won; Number of games lost; Biggest games winning margin in any single match win.
Coin toss
Coin Toss/Serve: At the start of each match, a coin toss decides which team serves first, in the first set of each match. The team that served last in the last game/Shoot-out of the previous set will automatically be the receiver in the next set. In case of a Super Shoot-out, a coin toss will decide who serves first.
Shoot-out & Super Shoot-out
A five (5) minute Shoot-out is played at five (5) games all, to replace the traditional seven (7) point tie breaker. The Shoot-out follows the traditional tiebreaker rules, which means that the player starting the Shoot-out serves for one (1) point, and from then onwards every player serves for two (2) points. There will be no change overs, and the player that wins the most points within the four (4) minutes wins the set.
Players have a 20 second Shot Clock between points and lose a point in case the Shot Clock runs out. If the score is tied at the end of five (5) minutes, the next point wins the Shoot-out and the set. Each player receives one (1) additional player challenge during the Shoot-out, and any un-used player challenges will be carried over from the set. The Super Shoot-out is played the same way as the Shoot-out, but it lasts for seven (7) minutes and is played to settle the score in case the total points won by the teams is tied after five (5) sets. A coin toss decides who serves first in the Super Shoot-out.
Each player receives two player challenges during the Super Shoot-out.
Unless otherwise agreed, the Super Shoot-out is played between the leading men’s players of both teams. In case the leading player is injured, the team can decide to substitute with the other male singles player, or with a doubles/legends player.
Final Set Importance
The final set of each match will be played until either the leading team in overall game scores wins the final set. If the trailing team in overall games wins the fifth (5th) set and the trailing team is still behind in overall games won, then the match continues until either the trailing team has won enough games to equal the overall score and forces the play of the Super Shoot-out, or the leading team wins one (1) more game to win the match. In case the player of the team which is leading in overall games won gets injured, then the trailing team automatically wins the set with the total numbers of games needed to equal the score and to force a Super Shoot-out.
Shot Clock
A shot clock manages the following and can be set, stopped and re-started only by the Chair Umpire:
20 seconds Shot Clock between points
20 seconds Shot Clock between points during Shoot-out and Super Shoot-out
45 seconds Shot Clock during change overs
60 seconds Shot Clock for Coaches Time-outs
3 minutes Shot Clock after the end of each set
Time-Out
Each Team Coach can call for a Time-out at any time, once (1) during each set; each Time-out lasts for 60 seconds, only.
Power Point
The receiving player can call a Power Point once every set, indicating that the next point counts double.
#BreakTheCode @tsonga7 @TreatHuey @MariaSharapova @andy_murray all smiles at #IPTLManila event http://t.co/oPeI774rwg pic.twitter.com/D7823m803y
— ITS Tennis News (@itennisschool) December 1, 2014