DUBAI: The Kites prevailed over the Eagles 35-27 on the opening night of the World Tennis League in Dubai.
Nick Kyrgios fired an ace on the opening point, and partnering Bianca Andreescu he kept a grip on proceedings to defeat Holger Rune and Eugenie Bouchard (Kites) 6-2 6-3. After a comfortable opening set for the Eagles things tightened up in the second, with just one break of serve against Eugenie Bouchard settling the outcome.
The second match of the evening saw a clash between recent WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia of the Eagles against world number one, WTA Player of the Year and ITF World Champion Iga Swiatek. In a high quality battle it was Swiatek who came out on top with a well-earned 6-3 6-4 victory to level the tie.
The deciding match between Nick Kyrgios and Felix Auger-Aliassime also produced great entertainment as Auger-Aliassime had to fight his way into the match after dropping the opening three games. But he rose well to the challenge and quickly levelled at 3-3 before going on to snatch the set 7-5. A break for 3-2 was then enough to secure a 7-5 6-3 victory for Auger-Aliassime and a 2-1 win for the Kites.
There are three matches in each of the six sessions, featuring a mixed doubles, a women’s singles and men’s singles. Teams get one point for each game they win, plus five bonus points for winning the most games in a match. One point wins the game at deuce, there is no advantage scoring, and if sets are one set each a super tiebreak is played, first to 10. That tiebreak can be won by a single point margin.
