Mahesh Bhupathi’s IPTL to sell stakes to Williams, Becker, Moya

MUMBAI: Mahesh Bhupathi-owned International Premier Tennis League or IPTL, which will feature top-ranked tennis stars and former champions, will sell significant minority stakes to Serena Williams, Carlos Moya and Boris Becker, said a person with direct knowledge of the development who didn’t want to be named. "We are in discussions with many senior players for partnership," said Bhupathi. “I cannot comment further on the matter."
The IPTL championship will be played between November 14 and December 28. Four players will own roughly a 10 per cent stake each in IPTL and the rest will be held by Bhupathi, said the person cited above. IPTL has appointed boutique investment bank Euromax to scout for potential investors to raise $25 million (Rs 150 crore). Euromax officials declined to comment.

Incidentally, Becker sits on the advisory board of both Euromax and IPTL. “We will think of raising (more) funds after one or two seasons," said Bhupathi, one half of India’s famed doubles pairing with Leander Paes. The league will initially consists of four city-based franchises in Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore and Manila and is backed by top-ranked stars including Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga apart from former champions, or “legends” such as Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Patrick Rafter, Goran Ivanisevic and Carlos Moya.

Each team will play against the rival twice with one game in the home country and the other overseas over 24 matches. Each match will consist of a set each for men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, mixed doubles, and, if required, a legends’ singles tiebreak to decide the match. The tiebreak will be invoked at 5–all in a set rather than 6-all.

According to its founders, IPTL is a team-based, cross-border format similar to football and cricket leagues, filling the void arising from absence of a Grand Slam championship in Asia. The league has received confirmations from current world number ones Nadal and Williams as well as from Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka and Ana Ivanovic.

The trend of players getting into running tournaments in fresh formats is likely to gather pace. "Many players are going a step ahead from just leveraging their brand value to getting involved in a venture at the admin level," said Nilesh Kulkarni, former India cricketer who runs the International Institute of Sports Management.