The UAE Royals coasted to their first win on home soil with a 26-22 result against the cellar-placed Japan Warriors on the final day of the Dubai leg of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) on Wednesday.
In another match at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, Singapore Slammers brought down the high-flying Micromax Indian Aces 27-16.
After losing their ties against the Philippine Mavericks and the Singapore Slammers on the first two days of the Dubai leg, the UAE Royals tasted victory largely due to the efforts of Marin Cilic in his singles 6-3 win against Philipp Kohlschreiber and then his doubles 6-5 result in the company of Daniel Nestor against Leander Paes and Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Kristina Mladenovic took the match out of the grasp of the Japan Warriors with a smooth 6-2 win against Kirsten Flipkens, and then went down 5-6 along with Nestor in the mixed doubles against Flipkens and Herbert to eventually notch their first win in the UAE.
With four of the five legs of the competition over, it is the Micromax Indian Aces who are nearly assured of a finals spot, with eight wins out of the ten played.
The Singapore Slammers will vie with the Philippine Mavericks for second spot, with the Singapore franchise having a better record of winning six of the nine rounds, while the Mavericks have five wins from nine.
The teams next head to Singapore for the last round of the competition to be held tomorrow and on Saturday, followed by the final between the top two sides on Sunday.
On the first day, the Philippine Warriors will take on the Japan Warriors, while the Singapore Slammers will face UAE Royals.
Earlier in the day, the Singapore Slammers consolidated their position in second place with a 27-16 win over defending champions and current leaders Indian Aces.
Playing without an ill captain, Fabrice Santoro, for the second day, the Indian Aces always had a mountain to climb after the Frenchman’s match was counted as a 0-6 loss. Agnieszka Radwanska did give the Indians some hope with a 6-3 win over Belinda Bencic. But that was as far as they could get as the team representing Singapore walked away with the next three matches to hand the Indian Aces only their second defeat of the tournament.
Yesterday’s late night win gave the UAE Royals only their fourth success from the nine times they have played so far this season. Due to the odd number of teams this season, one team plays an extra match. That team will be allowed to drop their score on any one match through the season, provided they communicate this intent soon after the match is completed. It was the UAE Royals playing this extra match, and they have chosen to drop their 18-29 loss to the Philippine Mavericks during the Manila round on December 6.
