UAE Royals end drought

Dubai - The night got off to an ominous start for Jean-Laffnie (JL) de Jager's squad with Goran Ivanisevic losing the men's legends singles match to Marat Safin 6-3 for the Warriors to open up a three-game lead.

The OBI UAE Royals kept alive their hopes of qualifying for Sunday's International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) final in Singapore with a 26-22 victory here against the Legendari Japan Warriors.
Having already lost to two rivals for the runners-up position in the Philippine Mavericks (26-24) and the OUE Singapore Slammers (27-24) on Monday and Tuesday respectively, the onus was on the Royals to sign off in style against the rock bottom Warriors late on Wednesday evening.
The night got off to an ominous start for Jean-Laffnie (JL) de Jager's squad with Goran Ivanisevic losing the men's legends singles match to Marat Safin 6-3 for the Warriors to open up a three-game lead.
However, Marin Cilic levelled matters with a same scoreline success against Philipp Kohlschreiber in the subsequent men's singles and he then teamed up with Daniel Nestor to edge out Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Leander Paes 6-5 (7-2) in the men's doubles.
The Royals thus had a platform upon which to build being as they were a game to the good and Kristina 'Kiki' Mladenovic ensured that only a heavy defeat in the mixed doubles would deny them with a commanding 6-2 triumph over Kirsten Flipkens.
Mladenovic and Nestor did eventually succumb to a 6-5 (7-3) reverse to Flipkens and Herbert, but it wasn't enough to prevent the wounded Warriors from slipping to their ninth defeat in 10 IPTL outings.
The Royals had finally won on home soil, but they'd actually lost one more game than they'd won across the three days (75 to 74) so a wider margin of victory would have been welcome in the circumstances.
"We didn't make the most of our opportunities," JL de Jager said. "We would have liked to win with a few more games than we did, but we're happy we won.
"You want to win playing in front of your home crowd and Dubai has been special.
"We have two more matches going into Singapore. We want to play well and give ourselves a shot at getting into the finals."
Match-winner Mladenovic added: "We are happy to win here in Dubai on the last day for our fans and supporters.
"Going into the Singapore leg, we are going to fight for every point and try to make it to the finals. Basically, there are three teams (the Philippine Mavericks, the OUE Singapore Slammers and the OBI UAE Royals) fighting for the second spot and we will give it 100 per cent. Everyone wants to win in the team.
"The format is so fast and the points are quick, so anything can happen. That's the magic of the IPTL!"
The OBI UAE Royals are currently in third place with four wins and five defeats from nine IPTL matches.
They are behind the league leaders and reigning champions the Micromax Indian Aces and the second-placed OUE Singapore Slammers, with the Philippine Mavericks back in fourth spot.
The UAE franchise will play the Singapore Slammers on Friday at 3:30pm (UAE time) and the Philippine Mavericks on Saturday at 12noon (UAE time).
alex@khaleejtimes.com 

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