Hyderabad: Indian Aces’ hopes of regaining the IPTL crown went up in smoke after failing to win a single match as defending champions Singapore Slammers retained the title with a dominating 30-14 win in summit clash on Sunday. The final, in Hyderabad, was a rematch of last year’s title decider although this time it was played at the Aces home arena. [caption id=“attachment_3151588” align=“alignleft” width=“381”]
Singapore Slammers with the IPTL 2016 trophy. Image courtesy: Twitter/@iptl[/caption] Former world number one, now retired, Carlos Moya was once in spectacular touch as the Spaniard beat Mark Philippoussis 6-4 to hand the initial advantage to his side. Kirsten Flipken has turned around a matches with her solid game but on Sunday she could not do the job and together with Sania Mirza, lost the women’s singles 3-6 to Kiki Bertens. Sania came in as a substitute to Kirsten in the middle of the match. Sania and Rohan Bopanna came a cropper in the Mixed doubles set, losing 1-6 to Marcelo Melo and Bertens. Nick Kyrgios joined Melo and both took over Feliciano López and Ivan Dodig and added on the misery of home team with a clinical 6-2 win. With that result, Slammers had sealed the title, rendering the men’s singles inconsequential. Marcos Baghdatis completed the win with a 6-4 win over Feliciano López.
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