The 2014 UAE Royals season is the inaugural

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

of the franchise playing in the

International Premier Tennis League The International Premier Tennis League (IPTL, officially the Coca-Cola International Premier Tennis League Presented by Qatar Airways pursuant to sponsorship agreements with The Coca-Cola Company and Qatar Airways) was an annual team tennis leagu ...

(IPTL).

Season recap

Founding of franchise

On 21 January 2014, IPTL announced that one of the charter franchises for the league's inaugural 2014 season would be based in the Middle East. On 2 March 2014, IPTL revealed that the Middle East franchise would play its home matches in

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...

. The team was founded by Ace Ventures, a group of investors led by Sachin Gadoya, co-founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of Musafir.com, an

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

-based

travel agency A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel suppliers to offer different kinds of travelling packages for each destinati ...

, along with his friends Sawan Ravani, Rahul Saharia, Kaushal Majithia, Chirag Vora and Kunal Bansal.

Inaugural draft

The Dubai franchise participated in the IPTL inaugural draft on 2 March 2014, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Players selected by Dubai were }) , , Icon players , - ,

Janko Tipsarević Janko Tipsarević ( sr-cyr, Јанко Типсаревић, ; born 22 June 1984) is a Serbian former tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 8, achieved on 2 April 2012. In his career, he won 4 ATP World Tour titles, one AT ...

( sr, Јанко Типсаревић) , , Category D , - ,

Goran Ivanišević Goran Ivanišević (; born 13 September 1971) is a Croatian former professional tennis player and current coach. He is the only player to win a Wimbledon singles title as a wildcard. He achieved this in 2001 while ranked world No. 125, after ...

, , Past champions , - ,

Nenad Zimonjić Nenad Zimonjić ( sr-Cyrl, Ненад Зимоњић, ; born 4 June 1976) is a Serbian former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. He is an eight-time Grand Slam champion, having won the 2008 and 2009 Wimbledon Cha ...

( sr, Ненад Зимоњић) , , Doubles players , - ,

Malek Jaziri Malek Jaziri ( ar, مالك الجزيري, Mālik al-Jazīrī; born January 20, 1984) is a Tunisian professional tennis player. Jaziri reached his highest singles ranking on the ATP Tour of World 42 in January 2019. He reached the final of ...

( ar, مالك الجزيري) , , Uncategorized , - , colspan=2; style="text-align:center; background:pink" , Women , - ,

Caroline Wozniacki Caroline Wozniacki (; born 11 July 1990) is a Danish former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 1 in singles for a total of 71 weeks, including at the end of 2010 and 2011. She achieved the top ranking for the first time on 11 ...

, , Icon players , - ,

Martina Hingis Martina Hingis (, sk, Martina Hingisová; 30 September 1980) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. Hingis is the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and attain a world No. 1 ranking. She spent a total of 209 weeks a ...

, , Category C

Team name

By May 2014, the team was being referred to as the UAE Falcons. By June 2014, the Falcons had become known as the UAE Royals.

Home venue

On 25 June 2014, the Royals announced that their home matches would be played at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex.

Player transactions

On 25 June 2014, the Royals announced that they had signed

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...

. On 22 August 2014, the Royals announced that the team had signed

Eugenie Bouchard Eugenie "Genie" Bouchard (; french: Eugénie Bouchard, ; born February 25, 1994) is a Canadian tennis player. At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, she became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the final of a Grand Slam t ...

during Wimbledon. A team roster posted by the Royals on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

excluded

and

who were presumably released following the signings of Gasquet and Bouchard. On 19 October 2014, the Royals announced that they had signed

Marin Čilić Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...

and released Gasquet. On 24 November 2014, Bouchard pulled out from the competition due to an injury and was replaced by

Kristina Mladenovic Kristina "Kiki" Mladenovic (; sr, Кристина "Кики" Младеновић, Kristina "Kiki" Mladenović, ; born 14 May 1993) is a French professional tennis player and a former world No. 1 in doubles. She is a nine-time Grand Slam c ...

First coach

On 27 October 2014,

John-Laffnie de Jager John-Laffnie de Jager (born 17 March 1973) is a South African former tour professional tennis player. A doubles specialist, de Jager reached the semi-finals for three different grand slam tournaments three times in three different years part ...

was named the Royals' first coach.

Event chronology

* 21 January 2014: IPTL announced that one of the charter franchises for the league inaugural 2014 season would be in the Middle East. * 2 March: IPTL revealed that the Middle East franchise will play in

. The Dubai franchise participated in the IPTL inaugural draft. * 10 May: The Dubai franchise was referred to as the UAE Falcons. * 25 June: The Falcons' name is changed to the

UAE Royals The UAE Royals is a tennis team based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates that competed in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL). It is one of four charter franchises that participated in the IPTL's inaugural 2014 season where it finished as ...

. * 25 June: The Royals announced that their home matches would be played at the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Sports Complex. * 25 June: The Royals announced that they had signed

was later apparently released. * 22 August: The Royals announced that they had signed

was later apparently released. * 19 October: the Royals announced that they had signed

and released

. * 27 October:

was named the Royals' first coach. * 24 November: The Royals announced

withdrawn from the competition due to an injury. She was replaced by

. * 28 November: The Royals opened their inaugural season with a 29–24 victory on the road against the

Manila Mavericks The Philippine Mavericks, initially known as the Manila Mavericks, were a tennis team based in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines that competed in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL). It is one of four charter franchises participating in ...

. * 30 November: The Royals lost to the

Indian Aces The Indian Aces were a tennis team based in New Delhi, India that competed in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL). It is one of the four charter franchises which had participated in the IPTL's inaugural 2014 season and are champions ...

, 28–20, in a matchup of two previously unbeaten teams. The Royals' record fell to 2 wins and 1 loss, and they dropped out of first place in the league standings.

Match log

: Key: MS = men's singles; MD = men's doubles; WS = women's singles; XD = mixed doubles; LS = legends' singles; OT = overtime (additional games played in extended fifth sets); SO = men's singles super shoot-out

Roster

''Reference:'' *

– injured, did not play *

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

( sr, Новак Ђоковић) *

( ar, مالك الجزيري) *

( sr, Ненад Зимоњић)

Television coverage

On 22 August 2014, IPTL announced it had reached an agreement for the Middle East and North Africa television broadcasting rights with Abu Dhabi Media.

References

External links

UAE Royals official websiteInternational Premier Tennis League official website
{{Tennis box Royals 2014 UAE Royals season 2014 in Emirati tennis