Abiodun Jimoh
Roger Federer has pulled out of International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) tournament over knee injury and would returned to competitive action in 2016.
The 35-year-old Swiss has not played since a Wimbledon semi-final defeat by Milos Raonic in late July, while women’s World number two player, Serena Williams has also withdrawn from the IPTL.
The tournament in its third usually featuring four city franchises – Indian Aces, Japan Warriors, Singapore Slammers and UAE Royals but would features one fewer team than last year, and the event has been undermined by financial difficulties.
Federer, a 17-time Grand Slam champion, is expected to be fit for January’s Australian Open.
“We have had challenges this year, and we were hoping to get past them. With the current economic climate in India and the uncertainty of spending money, I reached out to both Roger and Serena to explain the situation.” IPTL founder, Mahesh Bhupathi said.
Teams face each other in fixtures in Tokyo, Singapore and Hyderabad from 2-11 December.
There are seven players in each team, with each fixture played over five sets comprised of a men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles match before a ‘past champions’ singles, featuring iconic players.
Kei Nishikori, Tomas Berdych and Nick Kyrgios are the only top-20 singles players involved this year, while ‘past champions’ include Mark Philippoussis and Goran Ivanisevic.
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