Punjab Marshalls defeat Raipur Rangers to enter CTL final
Punjab Marshalls became the first team to register their place in the finals of Champions Tennis League (CTL) 2015 after defeating Raipur Rangers 20-18 in their last group match. Punjab Marshalls won all four of their group matches to top North Zone, while Raipur finished in second place with two wins.
In the CTL format, the final result is decided upon the basis of the aggregate score of the five-match tie. The five matches are in the category of legends (singles), mixed doubles, women's singles, men's doubles and men's singles. Each tie also consists of five sets.
In the legends’ tie, Greg Rusedski of Punjab defeated Thomas Muster of Raipur 5-2 to give Punjab a winning start to the match.
In the women’s singles tie, Elina Svitolina defeated Alize Cornet 5-3 to extend Punjab’s lead to 10-5.
Raipur Rangers made an amazing comeback into the match by winning the mixed doubles tie. In the mixed doubles tie, Alize Cornet teamed up with Roberto Bautista Agut to defeat Marcos Baghdatis and Elina Svitolina 5-1.
That win, however, failed to put the brakes on Punjab as Marcos Baghdatis and Saketh Myneni took Punjab Marshalls one step away from the finals by winning the men’s doubles tie 5-3 against Roberto Bautista Agut and Ramkumar Ramanathan of Jaipur.
Going into the final tie of the day, Punjab Marshalls led the match 16-13. In the men’s singles tie, Roberto Bautista Agut defeated Marcos Baghdatis 5-3 to take the match into overtime. However, Baghdatis won in overtime to give Punjab Marshalls a 20-18 victory and a place in the finals.
CTL now moves into the last leg of the group stages, with Nagpur Orangers hosting V Chennai Warriors. Nagpur Orangers had defeated V Chennai Warriors 24-23 in their first leg at Chennai.Â
