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Punjab Marshalls swept the first home tie 23-15 against Raipur Rangers in possibly the most exciting tie of the Champions Tennis League so far in Chandigarh on Friday.
The Marshalls clinched the tie 23-15 after it went into 'Overtime', in which Marcos Baghdatis won the last game to seal the deal at the CLTA Stadium.
This victory has broken the home team jinx that has plagued the Champions Tennis League teams till now. Mumbai Tennis Masters lost their home matches in Mumbai, while V Chennai Warriors came agonisingly close to a victory before faltering in Chennai last night.
Punjab was leading 22-15 after the end of the last set that was won by Rangers' Roberto Bautista Agut. Since rules of the league requires the team leading (in terms of games) to win the final game, the match went into overtime.
Punjab Marshalls captain Greg Rusedski gave the Chandigarh franchise a head start with a 5-2 win against former World No.1 Thomas Muster of Raipur Rangers in the legends singles set.
In the women's singles set, WTA rising star Elina Svitolina gave Marshalls a massive lead by beating her rival on professional tour, Alize Cornet of Raipur Rangers 5-1.
Results: Greg Rusedski bt Thomas Muster 5-2, Elina Svitolina bt Alize Cornet 5-2, Elina Svitolina/Marcos Baghdatis lost to Alize Cornet/Roberto Bautista Agut 4-5, Baghdatis/Saketh Myneni bt Agut/Ramkumar Ramanathan 5-2, Baghdatis lost to Agut but won in overtime.
Image: Tennis stars Martina Hingis, Ivo Karlovic, Thomas Johanss, Adil Kalyanpur and Sathwika Sama pose for a photograph before a press conference of second season of Champions Tennis League 2015 in Hyderabad on Friday
Photograph: PTI