Tennis Premier League auction: Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza come together again

Mumbai Mumbai. Ahead of the much-awaited sixth season of the Tennis Premier League (TPL) powered by Clear Premium Water, all eight franchises gave their all in the auction at the Sahara Star, Mumbai on Wednesday. The star-studded evening saw the presence of tennis legends Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, who came together after many years to promote the sport, along with Bollywood celebs Rakul Preet Singh and Sonali Bendre. After four rounds of bidding with many ups and downs, all the teams built extremely competitive rosters, with a mix of exciting talents from around the globe.

22-year-old Armenian rising star Elina Avanesyan, who will be participating in the tournament for the first time, was bought by Priyesh Jain-owned and Taapsee Pannu-backed Punjab Patriots for the highest bid of Rs 42.20 lakh. Despite facing stiff competition from other teams, the Patriots pushed hard to add the world No. 47 from the Diamond category to their squad, showing their intent to go for the title. Punjab managed to add Arjun Kadhe from the men's Platinum category at his base price of Rs 5 lakh and played strategically in the final round of the auction by waiting till the end to buy Mukund Sasikumar for Rs 6.80 lakh.

Defending champions Bengaluru SG Pipers bought the second most expensive player of the evening, acquiring two-time Grand Slam mixed doubles title-winning Australian Max Purcell for Rs 42 lakh. The Rohan Gupta-owned franchise, which has Indian tennis icon Mahesh Bhupathi as CEO of SG Sports, made a late bid for Purcell but outbid its opponents to reserve his services. Bengaluru also bought Olympian Ankita Raina for Rs 5 lakh to further strengthen its squad and doubles specialist Anirudh Chandrasekhar for Rs 4 lakh to double the deal.