The Philippine Mavericks, initially known as the Manila Mavericks, were a

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

team based in

Pasay Pasay, officially the City of Pasay ( fil, Lungsod ng Pasay; ), is a 1st class Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city in the Metro Manila, National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, i ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

that competed 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). It is one of four charter franchises participating in the IPTL's inaugural 2014 season. It last competed in the 2015 season of the IPTL.

History

Foundation

On 21 January 2014, IPTL announced that one of the charter franchises for the league's inaugural 2014 season would be based in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Inaugural draft

The Bangkok franchise (as the Mavericks were still known at the time) participated in the IPTL inaugural draft on 2 March 2014, 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 th ...

. Players selected by Bangkok were

Move to Manila

On 10 May 2014, before the founder and owner of the franchise had been revealed to the public, IPTL announced that the Bangkok franchise would be moved to

due to the 2013–14 Thai political crisis. The ownership group that moved the team to Manila comprises

Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...

Hans T. Sy,

Jean Henri Lhuillier Jean Henri Diago Lhuillier (, born March 24, 1969) is a Filipino businessman, diplomat and sports patron. He is the President and CEO of the PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies, which operates and manages Cebuana Lhuillier, the largest micro financi ...

, Kevin Belmonte, Haresh Hiranand, and Bala Swaminathan. Sy is president of SM Prime Holdings, the largest

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

operator in the Philippines. Lhuillier is the President and CEO of PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies, which operates

Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop Cebuana Lhuillier Pawnshop (formerly known as Agencia Cebuana) commonly known as Cebuana, is a Philippine-based pawnshop and the flagship brand of PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies. Jean Henri Lhuillier is the current President and CEO of Cebuana ...

, a large pawnshop chain in the Philippines, as well as related businesses. By June 2014, the Manila franchise had been named the Manila Mavericks. On 27 October 2014,

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

resident

Treat Huey Treat Conrad Huey (; born August 28, 1985) is a Filipino-American tennis player who represents the Philippines in international competitions. He turned professional in 2008 and he started representing the Philippines in the Davis Cup and the ...

was named the Mavericks' first coach.

Inaugural season

The Mavericks will open their inaugural season with a home match on 28 November 2014, against 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 ...

. Mavericks owners are Hans Sy, Jean Henri Lhuillier, Kevin Belmonte, Haresh Hiranand and foreign partner Bala Swaminathan

Second season

The Manila Mavericks changed their name to the "Philippine Mavericks".

Third season

The Mavericks will not be taking part in the third season reportedly due to financial constraints and political situation in the Philippines. However the team owners dispute this reason saying that the team is "ready and committed for the long haul", and that as businessmen, the Philippines is capable of hosting IPTL matches. They say that the IPTL failed to fulfill its obligations to the franchise and will only reconsider joining the next season if these obligations were fulfilled.

Home venue

On 23 July 2014, the Mavericks announced that their home matches would be played at

Smart Araneta Coliseum The Araneta Coliseum, also currently known by naming rights sponsorship as Smart Araneta Coliseum, is an indoor multi-purpose arena, sports arena that is part of the Araneta City in the Cubao area of Quezon City, Philippines. Nicknamed as "the ...

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...

Metropolitan Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

. On 29 August 2014, IPTL announced that the

Mall of Asia Arena The SM Mall of Asia Arena, also known as the Mall of Asia Arena or the MoA Arena, is an indoor arena within the SM Mall of Asia complex, in Bay City, Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines. It has a seating capacity of 15,000 for sporting events, an ...

, Metropolitan Manila, the first choice as a home for the Mavericks, had opened up the dates of the team's home matches making it possible for the Mavericks to play there.

Television coverage

On 7 November 2014, IPTL announced it had reached an agreement for the Philippines television

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution (business), distribution of sound, audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio ...

rights with

ABS-CBN ABS-CBN (an initialism of its two predecessors' names, Alto Broadcasting System and Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is a Television in the Philippines, Philippine Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast broadcast network, network tha ...

for its 2014 season. On November 9, 2015, IPTL went into one-year broadcast agreement with Philippine sports broadcaster

Sports5 One Sports (formerly ABC Sports from 2004 to 2008, Sports5 from 2011 to 2017 and ESPN5 from 2017 to 2020) is the sports division of TV5 Network, Inc. and jointly-operated with sister company Cignal TV. One Sports supplies and airs major sport ...

for the online and television airing of the games.

Most recent roster

– Player-Coach *

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

* James Blake *

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 ...

Milos Raonic Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), wh ...

Somdev Devvarman Somdev Kishore Devvarman (born 13 February 1985) is a former professional Indian tennis player. He hit the headlines for being the only collegiate player to have made three consecutive finals at the NCAA, winning back-to-back finals i ...

Mark Philippoussis Mark Anthony Philippoussis ( ; born 7 November 1976) is an Australian former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winni ...

Ajla Tomljanović Ajla Tomljanović ( ; ; born 7 May 1993) is an Australian professional tennis player. She has won four singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 October 2022, she reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33. On 5 Janu ...

Édouard Roger-Vasselin Édouard Roger-Vasselin (; born 28 November 1983) is a French professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles. He won his first Grand Slam title at the 2014 French Open, winning the men's doubles partnering Julien Benneteau, a ...

Jarmila Wolfe Jarmila Wolfe (née Gajdošová, formerly Groth; born 26 April 1987) is a Slovak-Australian former tennis player. In her career, she won two singles titles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 14 singles and ten doubles titles on ...

Ivo Karlović Ivo Karlović (; born 28 February 1979) is a former Croatian professional tennis player. His height of 211 cm (6 ft 11 in) makes him the joint tallest ranked tennis player in history, along with Reilly Opelka. He has won eight ATP sin ...

References

External links

*
International Premier Tennis League official website
{{Tennis box International Premier Tennis League teams Tennis in the Philippines Sports clubs established in 2014 2014 establishments in the Philippines 2014 establishments in Thailand Sports teams in Metro Manila *