Indian Aces suffer first defeat of season in IPTL

Indian Aces lost all but one match as they suffered their first defeat of the 2016 IPTL season, losing 20-30 to Singapore Slammers, here on Sunday.

Mark Philipoussis began the day for the inaugural champions but lost 3-6 to Thomas Johannson in the legend singles. Kirsten Flipkens, who had scripted a decisive win for the team on Saturday, though could not help the side on Sunday, losing her women’s singles contest 4-6 to Swiss great Martina Hingis, a first-timer in IPTL.

Hingis returned again with Pablo Cuevas and got the better of the Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna 6-4. It was the first match for Sania and Hingis against each other after splitting. Indian aces were now trailing by five points and they needed a big win from Feliciano Lopez but the Spaniard lost 3-6 to Czech Tomas Berdych.

The match was beyond the Indian team now and the combine of Lopez and Bopanna managed a 6-6 tie in the men’s doubles against Daniel Nestor and Cuevas.