The Philippine Mavericks suffered a narrow defeat against Singapore Slammers, 24-26, to open their campaign at the season 2 of the International Premier Tennis League, Thursday afternoon at the Kobe World Hall, Kobe, Japan.
Australian Mark Philippoussis opened the match for the Mavericks with a win against Carlos Moya, 6-4, in the men’s legend’s singles. Philippoussis and Moya exchanged service games at the start of the match, and the former eventually pulled through with the victory. The Australian clinched the last two games to take the lead.
In the women’s singles set, Karolina Pliskova pulled an upset against world number 1 Serena Williams to level the match for the Slammers. The Czech had 11 winners alongside the 13 unforced errors of Williams, for a total of 24 points won. The American had only 14 points. Pliskova won with a similar 6-4 score line.
The Mavericks regained the lead in the men’s doubles set, after Richard Gasquet and Edouard Roger-Vasselin won, again 6-4, over Marcelo Melo and Dustin Brown. Both pairings produced excellent service games, with the Mavericks duo getting 54% of their first serves in and winning 10 of them.
Melo took one back against Roger-Vasselin in the mixed doubles set. The former partnered with Belinda Bencic to upend Roger-Vasselin and Jarmila Gajdosova, 6-4. In this tight affair, the Slammers tandem of Melo and Bencic scored 18 points off 9 winners and 9 unforced errors from the Mavericks pair to get the win.
With the match tied, it was up to the Milos Raonic and Nick Kyrgios to determine the winner. Eventually the Australian, Kyrgios, used his powerful serving to edge Raonic, 6-4. The former had a whopping 83% of first serves in, which he converted into 18 points won.
The Philippine Mavericks will battle hosts Legendary Japan Warriors in the last match of the Japan Leg at 7:30pm Japan Standard Time (6pm Philippine Standard Time). Both squads are looking for their first win ahead of the IPTL’s next stop in Manila.
