Asian Tennis League To Feature Star Players

Written by: Staff on 1st April 2013

Sony Open tennis tournament on Key Biscayne, Florida

Asian Tennis League To Feature Star Players

epa03637165 Novak Djokovic of Serbia returns the ball against Lukas Rosol of Czech Republic during their match at the Sony Open tennis tournament in Miami, Florida, USA, 22 March 2013. EPA/RHONA WISE |

The world’s leading four players, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova are set to be offered the chance to earn $5 million for three weeks work after the 2013 regular season draws to a close with a new Asian Tennis League.

Mahesh Bhupathi, the 38 year-old Indian doubles veteran who is to retire from competitive tennis at the end of this year, is the driving force behind the concept that will be contested by four city franchises in his home country along with Thai capital Bangkok and Doha in Qatar.

Each of the six teams would have a minimum of six players categorized as “marquee”. The salary band for each team is likely to be set between $4 million and $10 million. Retired legends would also figure in the concept but the biggest pay deals would obviously go to the current leading players.

The action is set to start this year from late November until just before Christmas, with players crisscrossing Asia, as matches are played on a home-and-away basis.

Bhupathi is a long time entrepreneur outside of his tennis career and is soon to become an affiliate of new world no.2 Murray’s management team at XIX Entertainment. He set up Globosport, India’s leading sports and entertainment agency ten years ago, managing tennis players and cricketers as well as Bollywood stars. He is married to Lara Dutta, the former Miss Universe who has featured in several successful films.

As revealed in Britain’s Sunday Times, the Asian Tennis League is loosely based on the successful Indian Premier League cricket competition that is backed by some of the richest men in the sub-continent.

The format will be quick-fire and made for television with no-advantage scoring, one set each of men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and a legends singles. No entire match would exceed three hours. The team who win the highest number of games in the five sets would win the overall match.

Some players, such as Roger Federer, are already signed into other commitments for the end of 2013 and others, Murray included, usually view that time of year as sacrosanct for their off-season training block.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, Asian Tennis League, Mahesh Bhupathi, Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams