Some of the tennis greats of today and years past will play in Manila in the inaugural leg of the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) founded by former outstanding Indian Davis Cup star Mahesh Bhupathi who was a former doubles partner of PHILTA?s Randy Villanueva on the International Juniors circuit.
Villanueva told the Manila Standard that Bhupathi was in Manila recently and spoke to stakeholders who would serve as franchise holders for the Manila Team which will be composed of Wimbledon champion Andy Murray of Britain, Jo Wilfried Tsonga of France and outstanding female player Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
In the draft last March the players who will now represent Manila were originally picked to represent Bangkok but because of the political unrest in Thailand both the venue of the inaugural tournament and the team franchise was shifted to Manila.
Villanueva indicated that Bhupathi had spoken to the biggest supporters of sports in the country led by the MVP Group of Companies of Manny Pangilinan as well as the owners of the possible venues ? the Araneta Coliseum and the Mall of Asia Arena.
Villanueva said ?if it pushes through the event will be great for tennis and serve as a big boost to the efforts of people like John Henri Lhuillier to promote the sport in the country.
Bhupathi said Manila emerged as ?the perfect location? to stage the event since there are two world class venues that can accommodate almost 20,000 people.
Other big name stars in the IPTL event will be Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and former grandslam winners Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
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