Game, Set & Match

By Kin Enriquez -

I'm still over the moon a day after the International Premier Tennis League event and I figured I'd blog it for posterity.  Tennis is one of the sports that I follow, which started since I saw Martina Hingis play on TV (football is the other, especially Real Madrid). So it's no surprise that I jumped at the chance and bought my 3-day pass to the IPTL event to be held in the MOA Arena in Manila. 
MOA Arena
Right at the heels of the regular professional tennis tour, the league is a new, faster format that the regular tennis tournaments conducted by ATP and WTA. The team tennis tournament is composed of four teams based in cities in Asia: Manila Mavericks, Singapore Slammers, Indian Aces and UAE Royals. There was plenty of star power, both active and retired, who went to compete in the inaugural Manila leg: Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Ana Ivanovic, Goran Ivanisevic, Pat Rafter, among others. The Philippines' own Treat Huey is in town too, designated as the Mavericks coach and playing in the men's doubles. 
Ana Ivanovic serving
The event was slated for three days but I skipped the Friday session because of work. Still I got a lot of excitement from the two days that I've watched the event.

There were two matches between four teams for each day. The first session of second Day pitted the Royals against the Slammers, and the Mavericks versus the Aces in the evening session. Five games are played on each match: a men's legends, men's singles, ladies singles, a mixed doubles and men's doubles. 
Serena Williams prepares to return with her forehand
I was able to catch Kristina Mldenovic battling past Daniela Hantuchova when I came in arena, then Nenad Zimonjic and Marin Cilic versus Tomas Berdych and NIck Kyrgios in the doubles. In the second session I supported the Mavericks mostly throughtout the night: Murray against Gail Monfils, then Murray/Sharapova vs Sanja Mirza and Rohan Boppana in the mixed. I did cheer for Ana Ivanovic when she was in the singles match against Sharapova, who is playing for Mavericks. I actually enjoyed the new, fast-paced format of the games, and glad to see so many tennis greats all in one place at the same time. 
The Manila Mavericks: Philippousis, Moya, Tsonga, Huey, Flipkens, Nestor, Murray, unidentified
The third day brought more surprises. In the first session, Ivanovic played Mladenovic in the ladies singles, then it was Marin Cilic, who recently won the US Open, against Monfils. Joining the Manila team was Mark "Scud" Philippousis, who played a legends match against another Aussie, Patrick Rafter. It was followed by Treat Huey and Tsonga in the men's doubles, playing against the Slammers' Tomas Berdych and Lleyton Hewitt. The crowd was so worked up at this point as the Mavericks were leading by 2 games. Then it was an entertaining mixed doubles match between Murray and Kristin Flipkens against the world number one Serena Williams and Lleyton Hewitt. The Mavericks again won. It was a different story in the ladies singles, as Serena virtually conducted a tennis clinic against a hapless Flipkens, giving the Slammers one win for 3-1. 


 It was in Murray's shoulders to close it out for the Mavericks, and the match against Kyrgios, the conqueror of Rafael Nadal in Wimbledon, was just as thrilling as it would be if they were playing in the regular Tour. The score got to 5-5, from which there would be a 5-minute shootout, where basically, who gets the most points at the end of 5 minutes wins the game. Murray, to the delight of the home crowd, won it. My voice was hoarse for shouting so much during the game. 
Indian Aces: unidentified, Santoro, Monfils, Mirza, Bopanna, Ivanovic

I know that the results of the matches here have no bearing with the ranking on the regular tour, but I am glad to witness this event, and happy that it was held in Manila. It's about time that the city gets to host events like this, in the heels of the NBA pre-season game last year, and the exhibition football match between the LA Galaxy and the Philippine Azkals the year before that. And I'd say, more, please.

For now, the IPTL continues on to Singapore, then New Delhi and then to Dubai. You can follow the league here www.iptlworld.com. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Off the Beaten Track: Mapun, Tawi-Tawi

By Kin Enriquez -
Image
Guest post by Mara Ione Sarail Mapun? Where is that?” I get this question a lot when people ask me about my hometown. I’d ramble on and on the island (its location and the culture and the pretty spots...) but since the place is not really in any of the Philippines tourist spots and is in the middle of nowhere, I might as well talk about Atlantis instead. But the island does exist.  Mapun Tawi-Tawi or Cagayan de Sulu) is an island municipality in the Sulu Sea on the southwestern extreme of the Philippines, located very close to Sabah. Or from the way I see it on the Philippine map, the island is located on the Philippine’s “armpit”. Mapun is a volcanic island. The picture above shows Mt. Nanggoy, an inactive volcano near the Sapah Lake. The most popular tourist attraction in Mapun would be the three crater lakes on the west part of the island. Legend says that the three lakes were once volcanoes that erupted together. The first two, Danao and Singuwang, becam
Read more

Golden Tara of Agusan

By Kin Enriquez -
Image
One of the main reasons why I am always drawn to museums when I travel is that I would want to see, in real life, the fascinating things that I've only read in books or have seen in the films, such as archaeological artifacts or the paintings of Van Gogh and Dali . Museums give you access to all that. I majored in History when I was an undergraduate in the University of the Philippines. As such, I am always excited to see artifacts and historical curiosities that I encounter during my travels. But sometimes, they also make me sad, like when I saw the Golden Tara of Agusan in the Field Museum in Chicago.  The reverse of the Golden Tara The Golden Tara is a gold statue of a Hindu-Malayan deity discovered in 1917 in Esperanza, Agusan del Sur, in southern Philippines. Weighing about four pounds, the 21-karat gold statue depicts a woman deity sitting cross-legged, ornamented with a headdress and various accruements in the arms and legs. It was dated to early 13
Read more

National Museum of the Philippines

By Kin Enriquez -
Image
It's quite ironic that many people sometimes neglect to see the treasures that are right in their doorsteps. The usual excuse is, "they're just there and they aren't going away anyway."  I sometimes have that problem; I've been inside some of the great museums abroad, but I haven't been to the one just a few miles from where I live. I did try to rectify that last weekend, when I went out of my usual weekend routine of going to the gym and then to the mall. I went to see the National Museum of the Philippines in Manila instead.  Facade of the Old Congress Building, home of the National Museum Known in Filipino as the Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas , the museum is the official repository of historical and cultural treasures of the Philippines. The museum is composed of several institutions, including the National Planetarium and the Museum of the Filipino People. It also has several branches around the country, the Fort Pilar Museum in Zam
Read more