CHAMPIONS TENNIS LEAGUE today announced that Colombian tennis player Santiago Giraldo will be joining the League as part of the Mumbai Tennis Masters team. Giraldo will be replacing Andreas Seppi, who is pulling out due to injury.
Santiago Giraldo’s best result came when he reached the final of the 2014 Barcelona Open (ATP 500). His most notable wins came at the 2014 Madrid Masters, where he beat Lleyton Hewitt, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Andy Murray to advance to the quarterfinals. Giraldo's career-high singles ranking is 28.
Speaking about Giraldo joining the Champions Tennis League, Vijay Amritraj said,
“We are happy to welcome Santiago Giraldo to the Champions Tennis League Season Two. He is a terrific all round player with a powerful game, and the short format in CTL will certainly help him and the Mumbai Tennis Masters to perform well in CTL 2015. I’m sure he will also have a wonderful stay in India.”
Sathya Ramu, spokesperson for Mumbai Tennis Masters added,
“We are happy to welcome Santiago Giraldo to our team. He is a powerful player and his formidable forehand and serve, should see some very interesting match ups against Marcos Baghdatis and Roberto Bautista Agut in the men’s singles. I am sure he will prove to be instrumental in helping the Mumbai Tennis Masters record a win this season. While we regret the loss of Andreas Seppi, we wish him a speedy recovery.”
On joining CTL to play for the Mumbai Tennis Masters, Santiago Giraldo said,
“I am very happy to be coming to India this year to play in the Champions Tennis League Season Two. I’m also ready and excited to play for Mumbai Tennis Masters with some amazing players like Krajicek and Pennetta. I hope to have a great time there and here’s to Champions Tennis League 2015 – Bigger, Better, Stronger!”
Andreas Seppi had to withdraw from CTL, as he is going into surgery following a hip injury. Seppi shared the following video message for his fans:
The Champions Tennis League 2015 will commence from November 23rd 2015 and will see 13 matches played over a 2-week period. CTL will feature six city based teams across India. The teams will be structured into two zones, each having three teams, where all teams play each other in a home and away format. The team winning the highest number of games in their respective zone will play each other in the grand finale on December 6th 2015 to win prize money of Rs. 1 crore. The runner-up will win Rs. 50 lakhs.