Hyderabad: Martina Hingis, Flavia Pennetta, Jelena Jankovic, Thomas Johansson and other top tennis players would cross swords when the Champions Tennis League (CTL) 2015 begins on November 23. After a successful inaugural edition last year, the Vijay Amritraj-promoted tournament would begin in Mumbai and it will see 13 matches being played over a two-week period. The event would conclude with a grand finale in Hyderabad on December six. CTL features six city-based teams across the country, put into two zones, he said. “Each zone has three teams, where all teams play each other in a home and away format. The team winning the highest number of games in their respective zone will play each other in the grand finale to win the prize money of Rs one crore. The runner-up would win Rs 50 lakhs.”
The six teams include Punjab Marshalls, Mumbai Tennis Masters, Raipur Rangers, Nagpur Orangers, Hyderabad Aces and an yet to be announced sixth team. “Over the years, I always said that we only had the Chennai Open as the international tennis event in India. CTLeague brings international tennis, world class tennis to different cities across India. We have Indian Davis Cup players who are part of each team to participate alongside great champions. And, we will also have two juniors in each team, one boy and one girl, to learn and experience what it is to be alongside these great champions,” Amritraj said.
“What Sania and Martina have achieved from March this year is finding a complementary partner in each other… I think both of these have combined extremely well to prove as to why they have been outstanding in doubles this year. So, we are delighted to have Martina Hingis back,” said Amritraj. “Most of our performance has come in doubles. It is critical for men’s tennis to make the world group in Davis cup, that you have to have players in the top 50, to make the world group. If you do not have players in top 50, top 35, you are going to struggle to make the world group.”
