Mahesh Bhupathi Ambitious Tennis League Has Draft planned For March 1st.

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 10th February 2014

Mahesh Bhupathi Ambitious Tennis League Has Draft planned For March 1st. |

There are a number of skeptics out there who don’t believe that the forthcoming International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), which will play its first season from November 28 to December 20, will really fly, but Morgan Menahem, the CEO of the IPTL, thinks that the league has bright future.

The league will feature five teams in Asia, consisting of ATP men, WTA women as well as legends.

Team owners have to allocate up to $10 million as a budget for the players’ salaries, plus their expenses, which means that means that those in an ownership position must have deep pockets.

Four of the five franchises will be in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Mumbai. One is site is undetermined

“We’re in talks with a few people in the region who are interested. There’s definitely some strong interest. We’re really confident that we’ll get a team from the Middle East,” Menahem told Sport360.

But whether the league, which is the brainchild of player Mahesh Bhupathi, can attract top players during the off-season is questionable. Serena Williams, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have all praised the idea but none have committed yet. Plus most male player complain about the length of the current season, so will they add more matches to an already busy season?

It now seems like the league could go the way of the US-based World TeamTennis, where star players only compete in a few matches.

“It’s a simple yet complicated scenario. But none of the players are obliged to play first of all,” Menahem said. “If a player says ‘it will fit in my training regimen and I want to play two or three dates’ then we can work around that. It’s not a commitment where the players are obliged to play all matches. They can play a few matches, all of the matches – it’s a case-by-case scenario. Realistically, to make a team you need between eight and 10 players. To work around injuries, one guy missing a match but playing the following one… that kind of thing.”

Things are moving forward though as the draft for the five teams will take place in Dubai following the ATP tournament on March 1. There will be 20 matches over a three-week period, so that will be a grind for the player travel wise.

The league has hired the company MP & Silva to sell the TV rights, where it hopes to generate a lot of revenue, but given that only the Grand Slams command big dollars for their tournaments and that World TeamTennis and many other tournaments earn very little for their rights (if anything at all), that might be hard to come by.

“It will be broadcast worldwide we’re very confident about this,” Menahem. “It’s a made-for- TV event, so it’s definitely something that’s going to attract TV viewers at a time where there’s no tennis on. He also believes that the league may someday expand into other Asia markets, even into the Americas and Europe.

Editors Note: As impressed as we are with the plans so far we still have our doubts. We know there will be no difficulty getting Legends. No difficulty if you wave enough $$$ to get big Household names of some of today’s big stars. We know these are current tennis hot spots. So we think it has a good chance. Our number one complaint in tennis is always the same. Ticket prices are too high. The prices can go up with better seats or perks. But there always needs to be lots of lower priced seats to accommodate all the tennis fans of the world. One of our readers just got their Indian wells tickets. Yikes. You could build a court for what they paid for two weeks of fun for the family.

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Mahesh Bhupathi, Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Wta