Japan Warriors tame Indian Aces in IPTL

Singapore, Dec 7 (IANS) Indian Aces succumbed to their second loss of the season after going down 20-27 to Japan Warriors in the Singapore leg of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) here on Wednesday.

The Japan Warriors started on a positive note with Spain's Fernando González managing a narrow 6-5 win in the Men's Legends' Singles over 40-year-old Australian Mark Philippousis in a set that was decided in a shoot-out for the Warriors.

Next up was the mixed doubles encounter, where Serbian Jelena Jankovic and Jean-Julien Rojer from the Netherlands beat a very strong side in India's Sania Mirza and Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-4, who failed to create a single break point. The win boosted Japan's lead to 12-9.

The 31-year-old Jelena once again proved superior in the women's singles encounter to beat the crafty Kirsten Flipkens from Belgium 6-4. But the scoreline meant the Indian Aces were still close to their rivals in the tie.

In the men's doubles match, the Aces duo of Ivan Dodig and Feliciano López kept their nerves to beat Jean-Julien Rojer and Fernando Verdasco 6-3.

Verdasco, though, got the decisive men's singles set 6-1 and the match win for the Warriors in another Spanish derby against his friend López, who took a crucial game to get a bonus point for the Indian Aces.

The Aces still lead the overall standings with 11 points irrespective of the loss on Wednesday.

In the other match of the evening, the Singapore Slammers just keep on rolling on their home turf with a 30-18 win over the UAE Royals.

--IANS

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