The Micromax Indian Aces all but prematurely sealed their spot for next week’s IPTL final with a swift 24-23 win over the Philippine Mavericks in a rain delayed match at the Dubai Tennis Stadium on Tuesday.
Earlier, rain stopped play temporarily with the Aces leading the Mavericks 18-8 after the legends singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles.
Setting up the march of the defending champions was stand-in skipper Rohan Bopanna — in place of an ill Fabrice Santoro — who bageled James Blake 6-0.
However, that scoreline was over-turned in favour of the Mavericks as Bopanna was only stepping in place of the ill Santoro.
Agnieszka Radwanska kept up her all-win record in the league so far with a 6-4 result against Ajla Tomljanovic and then Sania Mirza combined with her partner Bopanna and then with Ivan Dodig for a 6-4 result before the clouds burst sending the crowd scurrying for cover.
After around half an hour, the rain had stopped and stadium personnel went about their task of drying the court so that play would commence.
That ultimately happened at around 7pm when Eduard Roger-Vasselin and Treat Huey came together against the Indian pairing of Bopanna and Dodig.
Though playing for the gallery, Bopanna was quick off the blocks against Blake as the Indian doubles specialist took just ten minutes to send the American packing. The highlight of that match was a 100 per cent first serve percentage from Bopanna. “I think that’s quite an effort from me as I have not played singles for a long time,” Bopanna said later.
“I think the key to the match was a strong serve and that helped us get through the first match,” he added.
In the second match, Radwanska broke in the fifth game and held for a 4-2 cushion. The Polish girl was well on her way to victory when Tomljanovic broke back and held but still trailed 4-5. However, Radwanska served out the set to give the Indians a 12-4 lead.
“Everything moves so fast that every point really matters. The key is to really stay focused all the time,” Radwanska said.
