New Delhi: The Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium proudly hosted an exciting opening game of the New Delhi leg of the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways today, where the Musafir.com UAE Royals met the DBS Singapore Slammers in a thrilling display of top-notch tennis that witnessed the Royals winning convincingly.

During their last encounter in the closing game of the Singapore leg, the Slammers and Royals went head to head in what was the tightest match thus far with the Slammers triumphant at 27-25. This time around, the Royals put on a display of world-class tennis and won 29 –16.

· In the Men’s singles, World No. 9 Marin Cilic gave his team a dream start and defended a brave comeback by Lleyton Hewitt to comfortably take the opening set 6 – 3 and put the Musafir.com UAE Royals in the lead

· Continuing to move ahead smoothly and displaying loads of confidence, Nenad Zimonjic powered Cilic in the Men’s Doubles to win a high energy second set 6 – 2 against the Slammers’ all Australian pair of Nick Kyrgios and Hewitt

· In the past-champions singles, big Croat Goran Ivanisevic was on fire against Patrick Rafter, displaying some top-quality tennis and winning the first five games in a row. Rafter finally got a break but that was not enough to match Ivanisevic’s smart moves and gorgeous finishes.

· With an impressive display of teamwork and exciting rallies, Zimonjic was joined by KristinaMladenovic to give the Royals yet another 6 - 4 win. Wowing fans,  a highly athletic Kyrgios and partner Daniela Hantuchova did their best to rack up points but could not prevail.

· In the Women’s Singles, Hantuchova displayed some fine moves and played a confidence-boosting match against World No. 8 Caroline Wozniacki. A fighting Hantuchova used every available opportunity to score, taking her team’s total to 16 points but the match belonged to the Royals who eventually won 29 - 16

What the Players said:

Marin Cilic: “I am glad to have played well in the opening match. There is a lot of excitement and energy here and it is only going to get better from here. Our coach asked me to play slow, take it easy, and that’s what I did. The match was exciting with two Power Points and I had fun. Now that I have played 6 matches, I am much more confident and it feels good.” 

Goran Ivanisevic: “It is a great crowd out here and I hear that it is going to be even better in the coming days! I’m happy that I was 5 – 0 against Pat at one stage and won later. When you win a couple of times, you come to a match feeling psychologically confident.”

MATCH SCORES: