Andre Agassi had been drawn to play for Singapore while Pete Sampras for Mumbai in the International Premier Tennis League. (Reuters)


Kevin Mitchell/theguardian.com


The $24m (14.4m) International Professional Tennis League, which was launched at a player auction in Dubai on Sunday, has already run into trouble, with Andre Agassi the first to cast doubt on his participation.
Agassi and Pete Sampras, reunited on court in London on Monday night for an exhibition match to celebrate World Tennis Day, gave their qualified support to the IPTL, which starts in Singapore on 28 November and will be held on a home-and-away basis in four Asian cities over three weeks.
However, Agassi’s inclusion, as a past champion for the Singapore team, looks doubtful, as the competition starts in that city a day after Thanksgiving and the American had informed organisers he would not sacrifice that holiday time.
Sampras, meanwhile, seemed unclear who he was playing for [Mumbai, along with Rafael Nadal], and said he would have had reservations about joining such a venture during his playing days, as it would have cut into his down time on the Tour.
He had a light-hearted dig at modern players who complain about the weight of the ATP Tour schedule yet are willing to give up their cherished off-seasons to play in the tournament, which guarantees some of them $1m a night.
“It’s a good thing to take tennis to places in the world where they want to see it. There’s no downside in doing that,” Agassi said. “[But] my agreement to do it was based on a few very specific conditions.
“Certainly economics played a little part in it but also time away played another part. I can’t be away for more than four or five days so I set some limitations and had some dates in December. Now I read in an email that the dates are over Thanksgiving. That would be a non-starter for me. Six or seven days away is too much of a price to pay.”
Owners from Singapore, Mumbai, Bangkok and Dubai gathered after the Dubai tournament final in which Roger Federer (who is not playing in the IPTL) beat Tomas Berdych to bid for players past and present players, as well as key members of the WTA Tour.
However, unlike the Indian Premier League that has set a light under cricket on the sub-continent and on which it is roughly modelled, no individual bids were released. No players were present and it seems some of them have been given the sketchiest details of their involvement.
Sampras said: “It’s happened in the last 24 hours. I’ve just been in talks with them and I’m excited to be a part of it. It’s a big endeavour by the guys who are putting the whole thing together.
“I have committed to three matches. I’m not sure when or where yet. It’s not an easy thing to do though, and we’ll have to see how it all plays out in the next weeks. I’ll get more details when I get home. I think they’re still working on the schedule.
“I didn’t have a lot of time off [when he played] so it would have been a tricky thing to commit to. It’s a long journey to Asia and I’m not sure how it would have played out for me. That was my time off.”
Andy Murray will play for Bangkok and Novak Djokovic heads the Dubai squad (They were due to play each other overnight in New York in another edition of World Tennis Day). Murray’s coach Ivan Lendl scheduled to play Pat Cash in Monday night’s other exhibition match said he hopes the Scot’s confidence will improve as he recovers from back surgery last September.
“Any time you miss some time it takes a little while to get back,” he said, referring to Murray’s steady but unspectacular performances since returning. “I understand from Andy that he played his best match in a while against [Grigor] Dimitrov [in a tight defeat to the Bulgarian in the semi-finals of the Acapulco 500 tournament].”
— Guardian News Service