CTL: Hyderabad Aces eke out 27-25 win over Bangalore Raptors

Hyderabad: Riding on spirited wins from former women's world number one Martina Hingis and veteran Australian player Mark Philippoussis, Hyderabad Aces defeated Bangalore Raptors by 27-25 margin to start their Champions Tennis League (CTL) campaign on winning note.

According to the league format, the team that wins more games wins the tie and not the sets.

In the first rubber, Hyderabad's Mark Phillippoussis beat Bangalore's Thomas Enqvist in the legends category 6-5 (5-2) last night, before Hingis defeated Venus Williams 6-3 in the women's singles category to give the hosts the upperhand.

Late at night, Mikhail Youzhny combined with Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan to edge past Feliciano Lopez and Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3 in the men's doubles match at the Lal Bahadur Stadium.

Lopez and Williams combination then beat Youzhny and Hingis 6-5 (5-1) in the mixed doubles category before and Lopez beat Youzhny 8-4 in the men's singles to give Bangalore a respectable score of 25.

The CTL enthralled the lovers of tennis in Hyderabad as they got to see old rivals Martina Hingis and Venus Williams back in action in a singles match.

The powerful rallies and serves between the two women, who were world number one during the heydaysof their career, were a feast to the eyes of the spectators.

Hingis mixed up her game, while Williams, who is currently ranked world number 18, tried to be aggressive but in the end it was the Swiss who had the last laugh with a comfortable win.

In the legends match between Phillippoussis and Enqvist, the latter dominated the game initially with a score of 5-2, but Phillippoussis fought back brilliantly to level the scores at 5-5.

Phillippoussis, who was known to have one of the fastest serves in the game, demonstrated his remarkable skill to prevail over his opponent.

In the deciding men's singles match between Youzhny and Lopez, the latter got the better of his rival 3-6.

Since Hyderabad?s aggregate was short of absolute aggregate victory, the game was extended which eventually Lopez won with a 8-4 margin.

Inspite of Lopez's win, Hyderabad managed to snatch a narrow 27-25 victory in the tie.