Singapore Slammers win IPTL

Nick Kyrgios has played a winning role in the men’s doubles with his Singapore Slammers retaining the IPTL title with a 30-14 defeat of the Indian Aces to wrap up the 10-day, three-city exhibition series.

Kyrgios, who makes no secret of his love of basketball, joined with Brazil’s towering Marcelo Melo in men’s doubles to defeat Croatian Ivan Dodig and Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-2 in the one-set shootout.

Their win delivered an unassailable 24 games to 10 lead for the Slammers, with the pair sending down four aces and finding the mark with 86 per cent of their first serves.

“It was a lot of fun. I always look forward to the ITPL and the new faces on the team have been key,” the 21-year-old said. “You make new friends, you have this team spirit that the IPTL offers and we have had such a good chemistry – the win shows it.

SLAM-PIONS! ????#IPTL2016 #IPTL2016Final #Tenfie #BreakTheCode #SINvIND pic.twitter.com/J9RujRAVxI

— IPTL (@iptl) December 11, 2016

“I love team sports. I love watching and also playing. Everyone supported me this week and that makes it more fun, more enjoyable.”

In other results at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium, Carlos Moya beat Australian Mark Philippoussis 6-4 in veteran play, Dutchwoman Kiki Bertnes defeated Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 6-3, while Marcos Baghdatis of Singapore stopped Lopez 6-4, in the last rubber of the final.

Moya, former coach of Milos Raonic and a one-time ATP number one, called Bertens “the queen of the team”.

“Yesterday was my birthday and I had a great day with the guys. We could celebrate, have a nice dinner and they sang happy birthday probably 15 times during the day. The win is a birthday present for sure. We all came out with great energy today,” she said.

“It has been a really nice experience. It didn’t feel at all that I was the only girl in the team. They have been very supportive, it’s been great,” the 22nd-ranked Dutchwoman added.

Kyrgios’s next assignment will be defending the Hopman Cup with Australia’s second top-ranked woman Daria Gavrilova from January 1 in Perth.