Dodig, Mirza Push Indian Aces Past Singapore Slammers
The Micromax Indian Aces improved to 2-0 in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) on Friday, beating the OUE Singapore Slammers 27-22 at the Kobe World Hall in Kobe, Japan.
It was the Slammers who would take the early lead in this one, as Carlos Moya defeated Fabrice Santoro 6-5 to put the Slammers ahead. Karolina Pliskova added to the Slammers lead by moving past Australia’s Samantha Stosur 6-4, as the team from Singapore took the early 12-9 advantage.
But the Indian Aces would rattle off the final three matches, starting with Ivan Dodig & Rohan Bopanna, who knocked off Marcelo Melo & Dustin Brown 6-4 in the Men’s Doubles set to trim the Slammers lead.
Dodig then paired with India’s own Sania Mirza and the duo downed Nick Kyrgios & Belinda Bencic 6-3 in the Mixed Doubles set, leaving the match to be decided by the fifth and final set.
And once again it would be Dodig who came up clutch for the Aces, as the Croat beat Kyrgios 6-3 to seal the deal for the Aces.
“It was great to win the match today, make it two in a row,” said Santoro. “The team is in good spirit, we love the bonding, next three weeks we will be together, eat together, train together and we enjoy it. It’s a great competition.”
In an extremely closely-played contest, the Philippine Mavericks edged the Legendari Japan Warriors 28-24 in Friday’s second match.
