World Team Tennis Celebrates Its 34th Season

Tennis Stars Play Summer League Co-founded by Billie Jean King

Jul 24, 2009

Founded in 1974, WTT serves up entertaining tennis by presenting past and present stars in a format that shakes up some of the rules of tennis.

Today, the Advanta WTT Pro League has teams in 10 cities from Boston to Sacramento. All the league's games are played in the month of July. Each WTT match consists of a set each of women's sngles, men's singles, women's doubles, men's doubles and mixed doubles. Two men, two women and a coach make up each team. Teams that have a 'big name" player have five members because the "stars" play a limited number of sets during the season.

Capture four points to win the game. The first to win five games gets the set. The victorious team is the one that has the higher cumulative score for the five contested events of the night.

WTT Rules and Stars

In WTT—unlike the tennis on the traditional pro tour—coaches are allowed on the court, coaches may challenge a limited number of calls, fans may keep balls hit out of play, player substitutions are permitted and let serves ( balls that hit the top of the net and then land in play in the opponent's court) are played. For disputed calls, the stadiums have large screens for instant replay. Players' names are printed on their shirts.

This year the featured players are Venus and Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, Anna Kournikova, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Maria Sharapova, Bob and Mike Bryan, Michael Chang and Kim Clijsters.

In WTT's long history, the 1979 to 1980 season was the only one in which no matches were played. Marquee players who have taken the court ito play WTT include Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Bjorg, Monica Seles, Tracy Austin, Andy Roddick and Lindsay Davenport.

Juniors Play WTT

WTT wants to help develop young U. S. players. This year promising juniors playing in the WTT Pro League are 14 – year – Madison Keys (Boca Raton, Florida) playing for the Philadelphia Freedoms. She is the youngest player in WTT history. Seventeen – year – olds Evan King (Chicago) and Alex Domijan (Wesley Chapel, Florida) play for the (Albany) New York Buzz., as do Christina McHale (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey) and Sloane Stephens (San Pedro, California). McHale and Stephens are 16 years old. Incidentally, 52 – year – old Martina Navratilova is the oldest WTT player. This is her twentieth season with WTT.

Championship Weekend is the Superbowl of WTT. It comes after the regular season. On Friday the top two teams in the Western Conference play each other, as do the top teams in the Eastern Conference. The winners advance to the championships on Sunday.

On Friday, July 24 the Springfield (Missouri) Lasers will meet the Newport Beach (California) Breakers to decide the Western Conference Championship. The New York Buzz square off against the Washington (D. C.) Kastles at Kastles Stadium for the Eastern Conference title. The conference winners play for the King Trophy on Sunday, July 26 at Kastles Stadium.

The copyright of the article World Team Tennis Celebrates Its 34th Season in Tennis/Racquet Sport is owned by Linda N. Riggins. Permission to republish World Team Tennis Celebrates Its 34th Season in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.