5 players to watch in the 2015 Champions Tennis League
The 2015 Champions Tennis League is only a few weeks away and the player line-ups have been announced. The event, which aims to bring world class tennis to the audiences in India, comprises of some of the top ATP and WTA players and the legends of the game.The team format also gives the young Indian tennis brigade an opportunity to rub shoulders with the top ranked players. The League is run by Vijay Amritraj, who is one of India’s most recognised tennis players and broadcasters.The 2014 edition had a star-studded cast, which included the likes of Leander Paes, Garbine Muguruza, Pat Cash, Agniezska Radwanska and Venus Williams. This year, the line-up has been revamped a bit and we see some of the stars return along with a host of fresh faces. Here are 5 players that will really make the event a spectacle worth watching.
#1 Flavia Pennetta
One of the biggest stories of 2015 in the world of tennis was that of Flavia Pennetta. Her career seemed to be destined for oblivion as one of those many familiar faces that made up the numbers. Then, suddenly and without any indication, she took one of the sharpest upswings of all time and found herself a little chapter in the history of the game.
Little else was being spoken about, throughout the 2015 US Open, apart from the history making opportunity that Serena Williams was sitting on the cusp of. With each match that Serena won, the chatter grew louder and louder. Deservedly so – after all, such an feat hadn’t been accomplished in 27 years.
There were 4 women in the semi-finals but with all that was being spoken about, the entire tournament might have as well been about just the one. Pennetta had already done much more than her previous best and found herself in the final.
Then, a whole market that was set up on the tickets to the finals that Williams was supposed to be in came crashing when Roberta Vinci defeated Williams in the semi-finals. All talk and speculation ended, hundreds of pre-drafted articles were trashed and the world watched, stunned.
In this atmosphere of shock and disbelief (which was what even Roberta Vinci felt), Pennetta stepped ahead and seized one of the biggest prizes in tennis. It was her first chance ever in nearly sixteen years of top level tennis. And she did not falter, winning her first ever majors title. And to make it doubly sure that she ended on the highest of highs, she promptly announced her retirement from professional tennis at the end of this season.
So there you have it, Flavia Pennetta - the 2015 US Open Champion and the WTA star of the Mumbai Tennis Masters. It is unclear what she plans to do in the upcoming years and the 2015 Champions Tennis League might as well be the last chance to see this unlikely champion in action. Compelling stuff, indeed.