IPTL: Moya, Kyrgios shine as Slammers trump Mavericks

NEW DELHI: Veteran Carlos Moya set the tone for Singapore Slammers in the opening rubber of the second day of the International Premier Tennis League's (IPTL) India leg, by overpowering another towering legend Mark Philippoussis of Philippine Mavericks 6-4 as Slammers defeated Mavericks 30-22 to move into the third place in the standings with a winning percentage of 50.8 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex on Friday.
The last match of the Slammers-Mavericks encounter saw some great fight between Nick Kyrgios and Edouard Roger-Vasselin as both of them played their second match on the trot, after playing in the doubles but the stake was too high as was the intensity. Both of them were not giving an inch to each other as they were neck-to-neck 5-5 after keeping their serves intact all along and the game went into shootout. Trailing 1-2 in the shootout, Mavericks' Roger-Vasselin, who was serving, took the powerpoint - in which the receiver gets two points if he wins, and their came the strategic mistake as he lost the two points and the plot to Slammers' Kyrgios, who extended his lead to 4-1 and then went on to win the match 6-5 (7/2). With this win, Slammers won all their matches on Day 2 against Mavericks.
Earlier, old warhorses Moya and Philippoussis played the best match of the Slammers-Mavericks encounter as both of them breathed fire in their sharp returns and powerful forehands while running hard across the court. After holding on their serves for first four games, the 39-year-old Spaniard Moya broke the shackles as he went into 3-2 lead after breaking Philippoussis' serve with a powerpoint as he was 30-40 down at that stage but soon his 39-year-old Australian opponent Philippoussis levelled the terms in the same fashion, like Moya did, to make it 3-3.
Moya's dominant style of game once again came to the fore as he broke Philippoussis' serve in the ninth game to lead the game 5-4 after holding on a serve each in between. The Spaniard then gave no chance to his mighty Aussie opponent, who unleashed six aces as compared to his one, by sealing the game and match 6-4 in his favour. The youngsters can learn a lot after watching these two tennis stalwarts as it was by far the best match of the day with surely lot to come as the night progresses. The intensity of the match can be gauged with both of them running hard - up and down from baseline to nets - as they checked each other's stamina and will power to the extreme with their mighty forehands and great slicing returns at the nets.
Slammers continued their winning streak with their mixed doubles duo of Dustin Brown and Karolina Pliskova worked out a hard-fought 6-5 (7/2) shootout win over Mavericks combine of Treat Huey and Jarmila Gajdosova in the second match of the day. The Slammers stretched their winning lead further by clinching the women's singles too after Slammers' Belinda Bencic got the better of Mavericks' Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 with consummate ease.
Mavericks didn't lose hope as they still got a realistic chance if they pulled of the last two rubbers - the men's doubles and the men's singles - but their bad luck was not ready to leave them after the combine of Treat Huey and Edouard Roger-Vasselin lost a fighting battle 5-6 (5/7) again in the shootout against the Slammers duo of Nick Kyrgios and Marcelo Melo.