The official Draw Ceremony of the third season of India’s biggest tennis league, Pro- Tennis League (PTL) was held in R.K. Khanna Stadium at DLTA Campus, New Delhi. The PTL is set to take off from 21st December at DLTA Complex, New Delhi. The league is back almost 2 years after the successful editions of 2018 and 2019 and it has generated great enthusiasm and excitement amongst the sports fraternity.
The event also witnessed the launch of theme song “Chal Jeet Le Jahan” sung by renowned Bollywood singer Sukhvinder Singh. The league engulfs a unique format of play this time.; all 8 teams were divided into 2 groups of 4 teams in each group, where they will play in a Round Robin Format. Top 2 teams from each group will qualify for semifinals and then onwards it will be knockout format.
The two groups after draw are following:
In the Pro-Tennis League 2021, many of India’s best players like Saketh Mayneni, Prerna Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Vijay Sundar Prashant, Vishnu Vardhan, etc. will lock horns against some of the experienced and emerging players of the country. On this occasion, the players expressed their joy during media interaction hailed PTL as a great initiative for the development of sports and they are glad that it is back after two years.
RULES AND REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE LEAGUE
1. Draw: –
• The league will consist of a 2-stage format…
• First stage would be played on a round robin basis with 8 teams divided into 2 groups of 4 teams each. The teams shall be drawn at random and placed in the groups without any seeds. The teams will play against each other within the group over 3 days.
• For the second stage, top 2 teams from each group shall move on to knock out stage for Semifinals and then finals.
• The winner of Group A will play with the runner up of Group B and vice versa. The winners will proceed to finals while the losers will have no further ties as there will be no 3-4 placement tie.
• There will be NO other placement ties for other teams beyond the RR stage.
2. Format of tie: –
• Each tie shall consist of 6 matches. All matches need to be played and the order of matches will not be altered. If a walk over is given the score will be counted as 5-0, for unfinished matches (eg. Retirement) the remaining games will be awarded to the winning team for that match. For eg. If a player retires at 3-1 and cannot finish the match, the score line will read as 5-1 for
3. Format of Matches: –
• Each match will be played best of 9 games. (First to reach 5 games with a difference of 2 games)
• Normal 7 point tie break will be played if the score reaches 4 games all (4-4).
• No advantage format will be followed, i.e only one point will be played if the score reaches deuce with receiver having choice of which end to choose. In mixed doubles matches, Male will serve to male and female will serve to female player only.
• This will be followed for both singles and doubles.
4. Sequence of Matches:- In each tie following will be order of matches:-
• Next Gen Men’s Singles
• Next Gen Pro & Women’s Doubles
• Men’s Pro 1 Singles
• Men’s Pro 1 & Pro 2 Doubles
• Men’s Pro 2 Singles • 35+ Pro & Women’s Doubles
5. Nominations: –
• There is no need to give nominations as the matches and the order is all pre-defined. (Please note that Pro 1 players will play with Pro 1 players while Pro 2 players will play against the Pro 2 players)
• For the team Sankara, since there are 2 Next Gen players, one player will play only Singles and the other player will play doubles. They will have to nominate the players 10 mins before the first match.
• There would be a nomination sheet with umpire on match court, where the nominations can be made.
6. Members on court: – Teams owners/ mentor/ players can all sit on court during the matches and cheer for their players. However, use of mobile phones will not be permitted while seated on court.
7. On Court Coaching: – Teams owners/ mentor/ players can all sit on court during the matches and cheer for their players and will be permitted to give on court coaching to the players
8. Time out: – In every match the Owner/Mentor/ team bench/ player of a team can take a time out for 1 minute to talk and advise the on-court player, which can happen any time, even in the middle of the game.
9. On court officials: – Each match will have a chair umpire and one line umpire. The chair umpire decision will be final on questions of fact, for the question of law the referee can be called on court. There will be ball kids provided on each match court.
10. ITF Rules: – ITF rules of tennis will be followed beyond the League rules as specified above.
11. Balls: – Technifibre balls will be used. 4 new balls will be used for each match with no change.
12. On court Supplies: – Water and ice will be provided on court during the matches for the players and members.
13. Code violations: – Code violation in a match will follow normal course of warning, point penalty and game penalty. However code violations issued to the teams will be aggregated for the entire round robin stage, where the first 2 code violations will be exempt from any penalties. Each CV after that will be penalized by way of deduction of 1 game from the aggregate number of games won at the end of RR stage.
14. Group Standing: –
• The group standings will be decided on the basis of games difference (games won-games lost) during the group stage. This means each game played at RR stage will be crucial …
• If 2 or more teams are tied with same game difference, then the number of matches won will be used to define the group standings…
• If the number of matches won is also same, than the ties will be broken by draw of lots.
3rd season of the Centena Pro-Tennis League (PTL) is starting from 21st December 2021 at DLTA Complex, RK Khanna Tennis Stadium, New Delhi.