Jankovic, Lopez guide Nagpur Orangers to victory in CTL 2015
Nagpur Orangers won their opening match of the Champions Tennis League (CTL) 2015 defeating hosts V Chennai Warriors 24-23 at the SDAT Tennis Stadium in Chennai. Jelena Jankovic and Feliciano Lopez were the star performers for Nagpur as Chennai suffered consecutive defeats at home.
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, Alex Corretja got the better of Rainer Schuettler to win 5-4 for Nagpur Orangers.
Former World No.1 Jelena Jankovic increased Nagpur’s lead with a 5-4 win over Heather Watson. The tie went into a decider after Heather Watson won three games in a row to tie it at 4-4. Jankovic showed her class in the deciding nine-point game to win the tie. At the end of women’s singles tie, Nagpur were leading the match 10-8.
In the mixed doubles tie, Jankovic partnered Feliciano Lopez to defeat Fernando Verdasco and Heather Watson 5-3. Nagpur went into the crucial Men’s doubles tie with a 15-11 lead.
In the men’s doubles tie, Feliciano Lopez/Divij Sharan beat Fernando Verdasco/Vishnu Vardhan 5-4 to increase the lead of Nagpur to 5, with only the men’s singles tie remaining.
Fernando Verdasco won the men’s singles tie 5- 3 against Feliciano Lopez to bring happiness back to the Chennai team. With Nagpur leading 23-20, Chennai used three super points to level the match. In the tie-breaker for the match, Lopez won five points in the nine-point game to win the match for Nagpur Orangers.
The CTL 2015 now moves on to Chandigarh, where the hosts Punjab Marshalls will take on Raipur Rangers tomorrow at the CLTA stadium. Both North zone teams won their opening match in Mumbai beating the hosts Mumbai Tennis Masters.
