LONDON: World No.1 Rafael Nadal is expected to earn $1 million a night in the International Tennis Premier League (ITPL) to be held later this year. The tournament, modelled on the lines of cricket‘s Indian Premier League, is the brainchild of Indian tennis veteran Mahesh Bhupathi and its players’ auction will take place in Dubai over the weekend.

The Telegraph has reported that Nadal is committed to play as a marquee player in the city-based ITPL scheduled from Nov 28 to Dec 20 across Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong. The other top players who have shown in interest are reigning Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych, Richard Gasquet, Agnieszka Radwanska, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki.

The report added that Swiss great Roger Federer, 32, is not keen on taking part in the event in a already crammed calendar while Andy Murray is still in talks with Bhupathi, who was part of the Scot’s commercial team briefly. The report quoted a tennis insider as saying: “Although the players are still sceptical, nobody wants to miss out on a possible money spinner, so a lot of them are putting their names down for Friday’s reveal. When the money starts being paid into their accounts, that’s when they will start believing that this concept is for real.”