Davis cup star Leander Paes unveiled the Premier Tennis League (PTL) Trophy at the Bombay Gymkhana here on Saturday and lauded the promoters of the seven-day league that will be held at the Deccan Gymkhana, Pune, from November 27 to December 3.
“This league filters through all layers of the tennis fraternity. It has professionals, national players, juniors, women and local players. The league integrates all players,’’ said Paes praising the initiative taken by former players Nandan Bal, Nitin Kirtane and Aniruddha Deshpande, chairman of the PTL.
Founded in 2012, the PTL is a five-team franchise league that has a prize money allocation of Rs. 5 lakh for the winner and Rs. 3 lakh for the runner-up. Played in a unique format of each of the five matches set to 13 games, the PTL will pit Accurate Aces, Baseline Bombers, Dazzling Deuces, Sharp Smashers and Vibrant Volleyers against each other. At a recent auction held in Pune, Saketh Myneni was retained by Bombers for Rs. 2.4 lakh.
The Volleyers retained Ramkumar Ramanathan for Rs. 2.4 lakh, Smashers bought Sanam Singh for Rs. 2.25 lakh while Deuces retained Mohit Mayur for Rs. 1.21 lakh and Ankita Raina for Rs. 1.02 lakh and bought Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan for Rs. 2.25 lakh.
Aces retained Arun Prakash for Rs. 67,760 and bought Sriram Balaji for Rs. 2.25 lakh. Last year, Smashers paid a high of Rs. 1.45 lakh to Vishnu Vardhan; this year Aces has bought him for Rs. 1.55 lakh.
The woman players in each side are Eetee Mehta (Aces, Rs. 75,000), Rashika Sunkara (Aces, Rs. 37,000), Prarthana Thombare (Bombers, Rs. 1 lakh), Rashmi Teltumde (Bombers, Rs. 40,000), Ankita Raina (Deuces, Rs. 1.02 lakh), Shweta Rana (Deuces, Rs. 40,000), Sharmadaa Baluu (Smashers, Rs. 1 lakh), Sowjanya Bawisetti (Smashers, Rs. 55,000), Natalasha Palha (Volleyers, Rs. 1.10 lakh) and Arantxa Anrady (Volleyers, Rs. 30,000).
Other men players representing respective sides are: Vijay Sundar Prashant (Bombers, Rs. 1.3 lakh), Kaza Vinayak Sharma (Deuces, Rs. 58,000), Vijayant Malik (Smashers, Rs. 1 lakh), P.C. Vignesh (Smashers, Rs. 58,000), V.M. Ranjeet (Volleyers, Rs. 1.35 lakh) and Chandril Sood (Volleyers, Rs. 50,000).