Murray floors Federer to seal slender success for Singapore Slammers

Dubai - Swiss suffers sixth straight defeat in IPTL 2 as UAE Royals' woes continue unabated

Andy Murray closed out a 6-4 win over Roger Federer to shut the door on any chance of an OBI UAE Royals recovery here and secure a tight 27-24 triumph for the OUE Singapore Slammers.
With only one game separating the two franchises ahead of the fifth and final set at the Dubai Tennis Stadium late on Tuesday night, there was an awful lot riding on the much-anticipated clash between the world numbers two and three.
The Brit benefitted from a flying start as he surged out to a seemingly unassailable lead at the Aviation Club, only for his Swiss opponent to reduce the arrears with his vintage best tennis for a few games.
However, Murray's agility and solidity from the baseline soon returned to the fore as he inflicted a sixth straight defeat for Federer in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) Two.
"You don't get to be as great as Roger has been for so long if you arenot competitive and want to win," Murray said afterwards in his post-match press conference.
"I'm obviously trying my best to win, but you don't read too much into the results because some of the guys haven't played matches for a while or haven't been practising as much. There were some good points, but it was just a little bit inconsistent."
Murray alternated with Australian Nick Kyrgios in the prior mixed and men's doubles to good effect after Carlos Moya and Karolina Pliskova had banked the legends and women's singles against Goran Ivanisevic (6-4) and Kristina 'Kiki' Mladenovic (6-5, 7-3) respectively.
Murray made way for Kyrgios to partner the talented Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic, but they couldn't prevent a 6-3 loss to Mladenovic and Canadian doubles specialist Daniel Nestor.
Kyrgios then headed for the courtside seating to give Murray some timely practice alongside Brazilian Marcelo Melo prior to his singles showdown with Federer.
That substitution saw Melo and Murray overturn a daunting deficit to scrape through in the first-to-seven shootout having eventually tied it up at 5-5.
"We didn't talk about the mixed doubles one, but I just felt that I wasn't serving so well," Murray admitted.
"It was an important game that we wanted to win and Nick has got a great serve. Unfortunately, we got a bit unlucky in that game; they returned great to break him.
"We then spoke at the change of ends at 5-4 in the doubles match and it was agreed, if we were to go behind in the game, I'd come in and just try and change something.
"Marin (Cilic) double-faulted straightaway, I hit a winning return on the next point and - all of a sudden - it's different."
On the revolutionary concept itself, Britain's Davis Cup hero added: "That's the cool thing. I've played Roger once before in doubles, but that was like 10 years ago. I may never get the chance to do that again. I also got to play against Serena (Williams) in the mixed doubles last year (when representing the Manila Mavericks against the Singapore Slammers).
"It's really nice to get the chance to do that and - if it wasn't for an event like this - it may never happen, so I enjoyed it." 
Result: OBI UAE Royals 24-27 OUE Singapore Slammers
Men's Legends Singles: Carlos Moya (Spain) bt Goran Ivanisevic (Croatia) 6-4. Women's Singles: Karolina Pliskova (Czech Republic) bt Kristina Mladenovic (France) 6-5 (7-3). Mixed Doubles: Kristina Mladenovic (France) & Daniel Nestor (Canada) bt Belinda Bencic (Switzerland) & Andy Murray (Great Britain)/Nick Kyrgios (Australia) 6-3. Men's Doubles: Marcelo Melo (Brazil) & Nick Kyrgios (Australia)/Andy Murray (Great Britain) bt Marin Cilic (Croatia) & Roger Federer (Switzerland) 6-5 (7-2). Men's Singles: Andy Murray (Great Britain) bt Roger Federer (Switzerland) 6-4. 
alex@khaleejtimes.com