Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.

Roger Federer has joined the UAE Royals franchise in the second season of the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League (IPTL).

The 2015 season will be held from December 2 to 20. The announcement was made at an event in Dubai that was attended by Mahesh Bhupathi, Managing Director – IPTL; India’s current test cricket captain and co-owner of the UAE Royals Virat Kohli; Neelesh Bhatnagar and Sachin Gadoya, co-owners UAE Royals and Praveen Bhatnagar, CEO UAE Royals.

Federer joins a team of tennis superstars including Goran Ivanisevic, 2001 Wimbledon Champion; Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open winner and current world no. 7; Daniel Nestor, winner of 88 men’s doubles titles; Kristina Mladenovic, champion of the 2014 Australian Open Mixed Doubles and 2013 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Championships and Tomas Berdych, the 2010 Wimbledon Championship finalist.

The innovative, team-based, multi-nation tennis league has expanded to five teams for its second edition with the Japan Warriors joining last season’s champions, the Indian Aces, alongside the UAE Royals, the Philippine Mavericks and the Singapore Slammers, in a five city swing starting on December 2 in Japan and ending at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium for the grand finale on December 20th. IPTL 2015 will see the top two teams in the league standings playoff to determine the champion for Season Two on Dec 20 in Singapore.

“UAE has tremendous tennis following and we are excited to be back in the country with the second edition of the IPTL,” said Mahesh Bhupathi, IPTL’s Founder and Managing Director. “Fans in the UAE and world over have embraced the innovative and unique format of the IPTL and we have hence made the event bigger in 2015. With Roger joining the UAE Royals, we are confident that tennis fans in the UAE will come out to support their team in great numbers.”

The IPTL, reaching TV audiences in over 125 countries, was established with the aim to ‘break the code’ of the traditional tennis format, with single-set, no-ad scoring to speed up the games. This will enable fans to witness 20 top players competing in one evening in various match-ups consisting of singles, doubles, mixed-doubles and legends sets. Other unique facets will again feature prominently in this year’s edition, including Happiness PowerPoints, Shoot-outs, a running shot clock and exciting in-game live music and entertainment.

December 2-4: Japan
December 6-8: Philippines
December 10-12: India
December 14-16: UAE
December 18-20: Singapore

Copyright © 2015. No duplication is permitted without permission from Bob Larson Tennis.