World Tennis League Round-Up: Monfils and Badosa led Eagles to face Kyrgios and Kostyuk's Kites in final

The World Tennis League final is set with Eagles and Kites set to face off on Saturday in Bengaluru, India for the title led by Gael Monfils and Paula Badosa for Eagles and Nick Kyrgios and Marta Kostyuk for Kites.

Eagles were imperious in their run through while the rest of the teams were a bit more even. Eagles faced Hawks on Friday and it was the top Indian stars who led from the front with Monfils and Badosa only playing doubles.

Monfils teamed with Shrivalli Bhamidipaty in a bit of an interesting complexion as he faced his wife Elina Svitolina in mixed doubles and it was the Ukrainian who won that battle 4-6. Albeit it was the only win they had to shout about as Hawks went on to be soundly beaten 22-12 by Eagles.

Sumit Nagal thrashed Denis Shapovalov 6-1 in game two to put them 10-7 up and making amends from the mixed doubles, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty didn't play Elina Svitolina, she faced off against Maaya Rajeshwaran sealing a 6-2 win over her compatriot.

Bhamidipaty was in action again with Badosa playing her only action of today's tie as she teamed up to win 6-3 against Rajeshwaran and Svitolina to win through 22-12. They finished on 65 points.

This in comparison to Kites who only narrowly qualified for the final. They were soundly beaten yesterday by Eagles and only actually won one game, their last one to deny Falcons in what was a straight shootout but it was Marta Kostyuk this time who was the leading light albeit she didn't finish it off.

Kostyuk teamed with Dhakshineswar Suresh who played twice in doubles on Friday and won through against Sahaja Yamalapalli and doubles king Rohan Bopanna 6-4 after Kostyuk had beaten Magda Linette in a 6-4 win to open up proceedings. Albeit Falcons would've been expecting to win through after they won tie three with Rohan Bopanna and Daniil Medvedev narrowly sealing a 7-6 win against Kyrgios and Suresh. But the doubles specialist produced the biggest shock of the week.

He saw off Medvedev 6-4 in the final singles to win through after it looked very likely that Kites were in fact going home. They finish on 58 point three ahead of Falcons with that win proving to be the difference. The final follows the same format tomorrow with a champion crowned.

This means too that we will get a new champion as Falcons won the event in 2024. Albeit that is technically always the case anyway as often players get new teams or they end up not playing the following year so continuity is less of a thing.

Denis Shapovalov was the only player before his team bowed out who could've had the chance to retain it for a different team while Andrey Rublev, Elena Rybakina and Caroline Garcia have not returned. Rybakina was originally signed up to play the event but will instead play the Continental Cup in Shenzhen next week. While Garcia is retired, Rublev played UTS but unlike last year is not playing much more tennis. He even played on Christmas Day last year at the Macau Tennis Masters but under new coach Marat Safin is having a training block over match practice.

Onto the final tomorrow which will take place on European time tomorrow morning and be shown on Tennis Channel 2. A key exhibition ahead of the new season, who will win?