ROGER FEDERER IS GETTING BIG BUCKS TO PLAY IPTL , WHERE IS MAHESH BHUPATHI GETTING ALL THIS MONEY ?

Written by: on 5th December 2014
ATP World Tour Finals
ROGER FEDERER IS GETTING BIG BUCKS TO PLAY IPTL , WHERE IS MAHESH BHUPATHI GETTING ALL THIS MONEY ?

epa04492432 Switzerland's Roger Federer pulls out of the ATP World Tour Finals final with injury ceding the win to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 16 November 2014. EPA/ANDY RAIN  |

Federer Has Brief IPTL Stay And Big Payday In India

 

The word around the tennis world is that Roger Federer is being paid a cool $4 million for the briefest of stays in New Delhi to play for the Micromax Indians Aces in the ongoing International Premier Tennis League.

 

As the IPTL roadshow moved on from Singapore to its’ penultimate stop in India, Federer and world no.1 Novak Djokovic are finally due to join the circus and confront each other again after the final that never happened at last month’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

 

Federer will only play in the Indian-based matches even though the final stop on the tour is in Dubai where he has long been a part time resident and has a home. But that is clearly not a problem to either the franchise owners Micromax who have a $US 2.2 billion annual turnover.

 

The Indian Aces are currently atop the IPTL points table with a three points lead over Djokovic’s UAE Royals and the Manila Mavericks and Federer will slot into a dream team line up for their home matches. Pete Sampras fills the legends spot with India’s own Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna also on the roster.

 

IPTL founder Mahesh Bhupathi was quoted in the Times of India: “There is a lot of buzz around the fact that the likes of Roger, Novak and Sampras will be playing in Delhi. They too are very excited about coming to India.

 

“Manila was amazing, Singapore was good too. Now I hope the fans welcome players with open arms.”

 

Bhupathi had many headaches about the Indian stop on the IPTL tour after original franchise owners PVP Ventures defaulted on a payment in June. Micromax, who produce cell and smartphones, tablet computers, 3G datacards and state of the art television sets for the Russian and Japanese as well as Indian market, readily stepped in.

 

The only proviso was the home city should be New Delhi rather than Mumbai and even the withdrawal of Rafael Nadal did not create a huge problems as the funds were on hand to tempt Federer as more than content substitute.

 

Now Bhupathi is confident fan reaction in New Delhi will surpass the popularity of the new venture seen in both Manila and Singapore.

 

“I do have high hopes. How successful it is we have to wait and watch. I just hope Indian fans take it to next level,” he said.

 

Switzerland’s Roger Federer pulls out of the ATP World Tour Finals final with injury ceding the win to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic during the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, 16 November 2014. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

Federer recently told ESPN: “To me arriving at the airport is very exciting. I remember when I went to Brazil for the first time a couple of years ago [in 2012] in Sao Paulo. I came out and I was like, ‘This is it. I’m in Brazil. I made it.’ It’s so rare for me to go to a new country, new place, new city.

 

“It won’t be my first time in India, but it’ll be my first time to play tennis, and that moment you walk onto the court or into the stadium — that’s why I play tennis.

 

“I’m going to India for that feeling — playing tennis, showing what I can do, bringing over my personality, sharing the fun and all that with the people, and how are the people going to react? And obviously I’m going to meet a ton of people, get a sense for how it is locally there. It’s going to be crazy, but I’m prepared for that.”

 

 

 

STORY VIA Bob Larson Tennis News Wire.

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