Former World No. 1 but now struggling at No. 10, Rafael Nadal will spearhead Indian Aces for the second season of IPTl. This would allow Delhi to be entertained with a match between Nadal and UAE Royals’ Roger Federer. Federer had represented Royals last year. The Delhi leg takes place from December 10-12.
Nadal’s teammates will be Rohan Bopanna, Sania Mirza, Gael Monfils, Ivan Dodig, Fabrice Santoro and Agnieszka Radwanska.
Two player changes from the past year have been the inclusion of leander Paes, once Bhupathi’s doubles partner, and World No.7 Radwanska. Paes joins the newly formed Japan Warriors. His presence has been welcomed by Bhupathi into the quick paced format.
“There are few people, who can entertain on the courts and this is a fast format. When it comes to net play he is one of the fastest players in the world. It is going to be fun for the fans,” said the four-time Slam winner.
last year Paes and Radwanska played for the Vijay Amritraj owned Champions Tennis league (CTl) which will be clashing with IPTl on four days this year. Bhupathi denied there was an agreement or deal with CTl to release the duo. “We approached them (the players) and they were picked in the players draft. There is overlap of four days in the two league this year,” said Bhupathi.
Japan Warriors are the fifth team in the IPTl — joining Aces, Royals, Philippines Maverics and Singapore Slammers into the competition which begins on December 2 in Japan and ends on December 20 in Singapore.
Bhupathi counted Japan as a lucrative market owing to the rise of US Open runner-up Kei Nishikori.
Gulshan Jhurani, co-owner of Indian Aces, said the tickets will continue to be sold for all three days (season tickets) despite the empty seats at the Indira Gandhi Stadium last year, even during the Federer and Novak Djokovic match. He clarified that selling tickets for individual days leaves empty inventory for the remaining days.
He also shared that ticket prices are either going to stay the same or be reduced slightly despite the increase in service tax. For this, he said they are in talks with the Delhi government to reduce the entertainment tax as 67% of ticket sales have been from outside the NCR.
Jhurani added that based on the feedback that was received from the spectators during the first edition, they are going to work towards improving things for the second edition in order to enhance the fan experience.
“We are going to increase the number of turnstiles for easy passage and the quantity of merchandise will be greater too. The tickets, booked online, will be delivered at home this year as against picking them up from the box office as was done last year. That led to long queues and a lot of time wasted for the fans.
“The number of toilets will be increased and it will be cleaner. The food and beverages available at the stadium will be better too. We have also secured a lot of parking space inside the Indira Gandhi stadium and the fans can buy them while booking their season tickets.”