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Virat Kohli became the co-owner of International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) franchise, UAE Royals, on Thursday.

UAE Royals will be led by Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer. 

Kohli said that he has always been a big fan of Federer and it will be his pleasure to be part of the franchise spearheaded by Federer.  

"I have always followed tennis with great interest and today I am glad to be part of a professional tennis league team. I am a huge fan of Roger Federer and with him joining the UAE Royals, my decision to be on board with the team was firm.

"The UAE Royals feature some of tennis' greatest players and I am confident about the prospects of the team in the IPTL. I am also excited about the format of the IPTL, which I am sure will drive further interest in the game of tennis," Kohli said after UAE Royals was unveiled.

Tomas Berdych, Ana Ivanovic, Goran Ivanisevic, Daniel Nestor, Kristina Mladenovic are the other players who will be joining Federer in UAE Royals. Federer played for the Indian Aces team last year but this time he will be featuring for the Royals. 

The UAE leg of the IPTL 2015 will be starting from 14 December and will go on until 16 December. The matches will be played at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.

IPTL now has five teams for the second edition - Japan Warriors; defending champions The Indian Aces; UAE Royals; Philippine Mavericks and Singapore Slammers. IPTL 2015 will kick-start in Japan from 2 December and and will end in Singapore on 20 December.

"UAE has tremendous tennis following and we are excited to be back in the country with the second edition of the IPTL. Fans in the UAE and world over have embraced the innovative and unique format of the IPTL and we have hence made the event bigger in 2015. With Roger joining the UAE Royals, we are confident that tennis fans in the UAE will come out to support their team in great numbers," IPTL's founder and managing director, Mahesh Bhupathi told reporters in Dubai.