India League Holds First Player Draft, Nadal, Djokovic, Sampras, Agassi & More Chosen

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 3rd March 2014

India League Holds First Player Draft, Nadal, Djokovic, Sampras, Agassi & More Chosen

epa04104510 British tennis player Andy Murray returns to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov during their Acapulco Open tennis tournament semifinal match in Acapulco, Mexico, late 28 February 2014. EPA/JOSE MENDEZ |

Although the tennis world’s current star names such Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were hired for undisclosed figures believed to be in excess of $2 million each for their services in the International Tennis Premier League in Sunday’s Dubai-based draft, each is making it clear they remain very much in charge of their own itinerary.

League owner Mahesh Bhupathi was tight-lipped about most of the financial details of the league he has planned and now looks like taking place between November 27 to December 20 this year. All he would admit was the entire purse of $US 24 million, the allocated figure for the buying of players, was spent in an afternoon of big-money deals.

But there was no explanation why the original claim of five or even six competing cities was reduced to four with representatives from Bangkok, Dubai, Mumbai and Singapore turning up to do business and both Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur suddenly falling out of the equation.

Current world no.6 Murray was picked by Bangkok but he appears to remain skeptical about the logistics of the ITPL and is believed to have laid down a firm insistence that he will play one tranche of three matches across consecutive days in the first week of December, so as not to interrupt too much his much valued off-season training block in Miami.

“The one thing I would say about the league, if I go to play in it, is what I agreed to is playing three nights in one place, so I’m not travelling around across the whole of Asia in the space of a week,” maintained the Scot who included Bhupathi amongst his team of advisors until just a few weeks ago. “If I can go somewhere for one week and set up a camp where it’s warm and there are good training conditions, then maybe.

“If I’m playing against the best players in the world that’s the only thing that is missing from Miami because I don’t get to do that when I’m there. A lot of the others play loads of exhibitions in December and I’ve never really done that. But if I could be in one place for a week and take my guys there and train properly, then it could work well.”

However Murray is insistent his sole commitment would just be one week, rather than three and he was firm in his assertion: “If I was to try it and didn’t think it was working, I’m not going to go back. That’s the reality.”

So the inaugural 2014 season of the ITPL will feature 24 matches across the four host cities. The four teams will compete in a round-robin format in each of the four cities.

Mahesh said the owners would name their teams, pick their colors and introduce themselves to the media shortly. He was tight-lipped on the owner of the Mumbai team, only going so far as to say that the city-based celebrity’s profile was perfect for the league.

Bhupathi said: “As an Indian and the owner of the tournament I’m delighted that the world no.1 Rafa Nadal is playing for an Indian city. I think the teams are evenly balanced, I’m happy for the players who have been picked, but in a four team playoff there was always going to be some players who were not going to be picked.” He added that the over the next few weeks the teams would pick their cast of support staff after which the league will form a reserve bench of players in case of injuries or pull outs.

Teams were allowed to draft between six to ten players. The salaries each team will pay its players is estimated to be between $4 and 10 million. Every tie will consist of five matches — men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles and legends singles. The matches will be one-set affairs, played with the no-ad rule with the entire tie to be completed in three hours. The competition will be played in a round-robin format. League officials said they would not be revealing exactly how much each player was worth and that it would be up to each individual franchise if they wanted to divulge the figures.

The result of the ITPL player draft

Bangkok:

Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Victoria Azarenka, Daniel Nestor, Carlos Moya, Kirsten Flipkens.

Dubai:

Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Goran Ivanisevic, Janko Tipsarevic, Nenad Zimonic, Malek Jaziri, Martina Hingis.

Mumbai:

Rafael Nadal, Gaël Monfils, Pete Sampras, Rohan Bopanna, Ana Ivanovic, Sania Mirza, Fabrice Santoro.

Singapore:

Tomas Berdych, Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, Serena Williams, Bruno Soares, Patrick Rafter, Daniela Hantuchova, Nick Krygios.

Topics: 10sballs, Ana Ivanovic, Andre Agassi, Andy Murray, Caroline Wozniacki, Dubai, Gael Monfils, India, Janko Tipsarevic, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Kirsten Flipkens, Lleyton Hewitt, Mahesh Bhupathi, Novak Djokovic, Pete Sampras, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Sports, Tennis, Victoria Azarenka

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10sBalls_com says:

March 3, 2014 at 8:07 am

India League Holds First Player Draft, Nadal, Djokovic, Sampras, Agassi & More Chosen- http://t.co/FpFkFH2NPZ @RafaelNadal @andy_murray

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