The 2015 International Premier Tennis League season (2015 IPTL season, officially the 2015 Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways season pursuant to sponsorship agreements with The Coca-Cola Company and Qatar Airways) is the second season of the professional team tennis league contested by five teams in Asia.
The teams compete in a customized round robin format of matches in each host country. The top two teams at the end of the round robin stage qualify for the final. The winner of the final is declared the champion.
In the 2015 season, the league has terminated the "last set importance" which gave the trailing team an opportunity to continue playing if they win the fifth set as played out in the 2014 season. In the 2015 season, the fifth set continues in the conventional way, where the first team to score 6 games wins the set, with a 13-point tie-breaker to decide the winner, if the two teams are tied at 5âÂÂ5.
If the two teams are tied (in terms of games won) at the end of the five Sets, a super shoot-out is played in a men's singles format to determine the winner of the match. It is played as a 19-point super tiebreaker. The first team to win 10 points, 9âÂÂ9 final point wins the Super Shoot-Out and hence the Match. A 2-point difference is not required, and it is not time bound (unlike the 2014 season). The match-winner is the team that wins the most games and hence points, at the end of the five sets.
The league standings are determined on the basis of the winâÂÂloss percentage of overall games won versus lost therefore making every game played count. The two teams with the best percentage ratios qualify for the finals. In the event that two teams are tied for the second place, the following criteria determines which team qualifies for the finals:
Five teams will compete in the 2015 IPTL season. Japan Warriors is set to become the fifth team to participate at the IPTL.
Novak Djokovic pulled out of the tournament and was replaced by Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka by Singapore Slammers. Dustin Brown replaced Thanasi Kokkinakis. Milos Raonic replaced Borna ÃÂoriÃÂ. ÃÂdouard Roger-Vasselin replaced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Philipp Kohlschreiber replaced Vasek Pospisil. Pierre-Hugues Herbert replaced Lucas Pouille. Mirjana LuÃÂiÃÂ-Baroni replaced Daniela Hantuchová. Alja Tomljanoviàreplaced Sabine Lisicki.
Notes
Standings are determined by percentage of games won. Top two teams qualify for final.
The following table shows the day-by-day position of each team in the league standings.
2015 International Premier Tennis League season
The final was held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 20 December In Singapore.
After an 18-day 5-nation tour the Indian Aces, with 8 eight wins out of 11 this season, and the Singapore Slammers, last on the league table in first edition, but finishing a strong second this season, played the final of a prize money of USD 1 million (USD 500,000 for the runners-up), which was won by the Slammers 26-21.
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) (Male) for IPTL 2015 was Ivan Dodig (Aces) whilst Belinda Bencic (Slammers) was adjudged the MVP (Female) for their performances through the season.