Russian tennis superstar Maria Sharapova and Great Britain’s Andy Murray will become part of Team Manila for the upcoming International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) which will have its inaugural event in November. Joining Sharapova and Murray for the Philippine team is the country’s number one player Treat Huey, Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Belgian Kirsten Flipkens, Canada’s Daniel Nestor and Spaniard Carlos Moya.
The Manila leg of the IPTL will take place from November 28 to 30 at the Araneta Coliseum.
“We are happy that our Philippines No. 1 and current ATP Doubles Top 30 Treat Huey has joined the Manila team, so his fans finally get to see him live in action at a home event for the first time,” Philippine Tennis Association president Edwin L. Olivarez said in a statement.
Manila will be the first IPTL stop followed by the cities in Singapore, India and United Arab Emirates. The Philippine team will be named Manila Mavericks and will compete with UAE Royals, Indian Aces and Singapore Slammers. The winning team will win $1 million.
The UAE Royals will be comprised of Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet, Janko Tipsarevic, Goran Ivanisevic, Caroline Wozniacki, Martina Hingis, Nenad Zimonjic and top UAE player Malek Jaziri.
The IPTL is a newly conceived tennis competition that will feature the best ATP and WTA players, former and current, which will compete in four cities in Asia. The competition proper will start on November 28 and conclude on December 13.
Each team will play a total of 24 matches in a round-robin format that was set up for this event.
For more information, visit the official website at http://www.premiertennisleague.com/
