ANDY Murray has agreed to play one more tournament before the end of his 2015 season, after announcing he is to appear in the inaugural edition of Tie Break Tens, a new, quick-fire tennis tournament which is to be staged at the Royal Albert Hall on the night of Saturday 5th December as part of Champions Tennis.
Murray, who will try to help Great Britain win a first Davis Cup in 79 years next week, will return to London to take on an all-star field of past and present tennis champions in this shortened format of the sport. World No.7 David Ferrer, former World No.4 Tim Henman, and rising Briton Kyle Edmund will join Murray in a six-man field, with the final places taken by a qualifier from the Champions Tennis tournament at the Royal Albert Hall, and one still-to-be-announced player.
Each of the ten matches at Tie Break Tens will be contested over a first-to-ten-point tie-break. The six-man field will be drawn into two groups of three players, using a round-robin format. The top two players in each group will go through to the semifinals, with the winner taking away a cheque for $250,000.
Murray said: “It's nice for me to be able to play one more time in Britain before the end of the year, and this is a really interesting format which should be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Tie-breaks are always exciting, so to have a whole night of them is going to be great. Plus, the Royal Albert Hall is an iconic venue, and I'm looking forward to playing there for the first time."
Matthew Pryke, Tournament Director of the new Tie Break Tens tournament said: “Tie Break Tens will be everything that people love about tennis, in a night of ten-point tie-breaks. It will be fast-paced, fun, but also super-competitive, and we believe it is a format that can be enjoyed by players, spectators, tv viewers, media and sponsors. We are thrilled that Andy Murray has agreed to be part of the field in our first event. With Tim Henman still in such great shape, it will be fascinating to see how he and the other champions get on against Andy, David Ferrer and Kyle Edmund in a short sprint to ten points. We are using this event to launch the format, and plan to stage further events around the world in 2016 and beyond.”
Sky Sports will broadcast live coverage of Tie Break Tens and the Saturday afternoon session of Champions Tennis and Tie Break Tennis will donate £50 to Unicef for every ace hit during the event.
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