2015 World TeamTennis season

2015 World TeamTennis season

40th season logo
League World TeamTennis
Sport Team tennis
Duration July 12 – August 2, 2015
Number of matches Regular season: 49 (14 for each team)
Postseason: 3
Number of teams 7
TV partner(s) ESPN2
ESPN3
Tennis Channel
Altitude Sports and Entertainment
Comcast SportsNet affiliates
Mediacom Connections
MSG
World TeamTennis Player Draft
Top draft pick Canada Eugenie Bouchard
Picked by Boston Lobsters
World TeamTennis Final
Venue Home court of Eastern Conference champion

The 2015 World TeamTennis season will be the 40th season of the top professional team tennis league in the United States. Pursuant to a sponsorship agreement with Mylan N.V., the official name of the league is Mylan World TeamTennis in 2015.[1]

Competition format

The 2015 World TeamTennis season will include seven teams split into two conferences (Eastern and Western). The Eastern Conference will have three teams and the Western Conference will have four teams. Each team will play a 14-match regular-season schedule with seven home and seven away matches. The top two teams in each conference will qualify for the conference championship matches hosted by the first-place finishers. The conference champions will meet in the World TeamTennis Final hosted in 2015, by the Eastern Conference champion. A Western Conference champion that is a higher seed than an Eastern Conference champion would be treated as the "home" team in the WTT Final and have the right to determine order of play. The winner of the WTT Final is awarded the King Trophy.

Franchise movement

On February 23, 2015, WTT announced that a new ownership group had taken control of the Texas Wild and moved the team to Citrus Heights, California, renaming it the California Dream.[2]

Draft

Unlike previous seasons in which WTT conducted its Marquee Player Draft and its Roster Player Draft on different dates about one month apart, the league conducted a single draft at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California on March 16, 2015.[3] The order in which teams selected was based on the results the teams achieved in 2014, with weaker teams selecting earlier and stronger teams selecting later. The team with the worst regular-season record selected first in each round, and the remaining nonplayoff teams followed in order based on their records. After the nonplayoff teams chose, the conference championship loser with the worse record of the two selected and was followed by the other conference championship loser. The WTT runner up selected after the conference championship losers, and the WTT champion selected last. The draft position for the relocated California Dream franchise was based on the results achieved as the Texas Wild.[4] Each team could protect certain players from its 2014 roster. Marquee players or doubles teams could be protected if they appeared in a match for the team in 2014. Exempt, roster and substitute players who appeared in at least three matches for the team in 2014, could also be protected.[5] Teams could also protect players who qualified for protection based on match appearances in 2013, but were unable to play in 2014, due to injury.[6] Teams holding the right to protect players could trade those rights before or during the draft.[7] In another change from previous seasons, WTT eliminated its separate roster-exempt player draft. Instead, roster-exempt players were chosen in the roster player portion of the draft.[8] Since roster-exempt players are not required to be full-time members of the team, the rule change makes it possible for a team to make four selections in the roster player portion of the draft and not have two male and two female full-time players. In such cases, these teams are permitted to make selections in additional rounds of the roster player draft until they have a complete roster.[9] The selections made[3] are shown in the tables below.

Marquee draft - first round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters Canada Eugenie Bouchard N
2 California Dream United States Bob and Mike Bryan Y Doubles team
3 Austin Aces United States Andy Roddick Y
4 Philadelphia Freedoms Pass –
5 San Diego Aviators United States Madison Keys N Designated
6 Springfield Lasers United States John Isner Y
7 Washington Kastles Switzerland Martina Hingis Y
Marquee draft - second round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters Pass –
2 California Dream Pass –
3 Austin Aces Pass –
4 Philadelphia Freedoms Pass –
5 San Diego Aviators Pass –
6 Springfield Lasers Pass –
7 Washington Kastles United States Venus Williams Y
Marquee draft - third round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters Pass –
2 California Dream Pass –
3 Austin Aces Pass –
4 Philadelphia Freedoms Pass –
5 San Diego Aviators Pass –
6 Springfield Lasers Pass –
7 Washington Kastles United States Serena Williams N Designated
Roster draft - first round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters United States Irina Falconi N
2 California Dream Australia Jarmila Gajdošová N
3 Austin Aces United States Nicole Gibbs N
4 Philadelphia Freedoms United States Taylor Townsend Y
5 San Diego Aviators United States Taylor Fritz N Amateur
6 Springfield Lasers Germany Andre Begemann N
7 Washington Kastles United States Sam Querrey N Exempt
Roster draft - second round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters United States Scott Lipsky N
2 California Dream Spain Anabel Medina Garrigues N
3 Austin Aces Russia Alla Kudryavtseva N
4 Philadelphia Freedoms United States Robby Ginepri N
5 San Diego Aviators South Africa Raven Klaasen Y
6 Springfield Lasers United States Alison Riske N Exempt
7 Washington Kastles India Leander Paes Y
Roster draft - third round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters United States Chase Buchanan N
2 California Dream United States Tennys Sandgren N
3 Austin Aces United States Jarmere Jenkins N
4 Philadelphia Freedoms Brazil Marcelo Melo Y
5 San Diego Aviators South Africa Chanelle Scheepers N
6 Springfield Lasers Germany Anna-Lena Grönefeld Y
7 Washington Kastles Pass –
Roster draft - fourth round
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Boston Lobsters Spain Arantxa Parra Santonja N
2 California Dream Pakistan Aisam Qureshi N
3 Austin Aces Russia Teymuraz Gabashvili N
4 Philadelphia Freedoms United States Liezel Huber N
5 San Diego Aviators Czech Republic Květa Peschke Y
6 Springfield Lasers United States Michael Russell Y
7 Washington Kastles Australia Anastasia Rodionova Y
Roster draft - fifth round[Draft 1]
No. Team Player chosen Prot? Notes
1 Springfield Lasers Pass –
2 Washington Kastles Pass –

Notes:

  1. ↑ The Springfield Lasers and Washington Kastles each drafted one exempt player during the first four rounds of the roster draft and could have selected another player in the fifth round.

Event chronology

Standings

Eastern Conference
Pos TeamMPWLPCTMBGWGL
1 Washington Kastles 6 4 2 .667 0 120 103
2 Boston Lobsters 6 3 3 .500 1 123 100
3 Philadelphia Freedoms 6 1 5 .167 4 106 128
2014 Eastern Conference Playoffs
Western Conference
Pos TeamMPWLPCTMBGWGL
1 Austin Aces 5 5 0 1.000 0 86 70
2 San Diego Aviators 5 3 2 .600 1.5 100 95
3 California Dream 5 2 3 .400 2.5 99 104
4 Springfield Lasers 5 1 4 .200 3.5 83 110
2014 Western Conference Playoffs

Schedule

Abbreviation and Color Key:
Austin Aces - AUS • Boston Lobsters - BOS • California Dream - CAL • Philadelphia Freedoms - PHI
San Diego Aviators - SDA • Springfield Lasers - SPR • Washington Kastles - WAS

Win  • Loss  • Home  • Away

TeamMatch
1234567891011121314
Austin Aces BOS WAS CAL CAL SPR CAL SDA SPR PHI WAS SDA SDA WAS SPR
22-1822-17 20-19 22-16 19-18
Boston LobstersWAS AUS SPR SDA PHI CAL SDA WAS PHI WAS CAL PHI PHI WAS
17-2018-22 25-18 25-13 21-17 17-20
California Dream SDA SPR PHI AUS AUS BOS AUS SPR SDA SDA BOS PHI WAS SDA
19-24 23-18 22-20 19-20 16-22 20-17
Philadelphia Freedoms SPR SDA CAL BOS WAS WAS SPR WAS BOS AUS SPR CAL BOS BOS
22-1921-22 20-22 17-21 20-21 6-23
San Diego AviatorsCAL PHI BOS WAS SPR BOS AUS CAL CAL SPR AUS AUS SPR CAL
24-19 22-21 13-25 22-18 19-22
Springfield LasersPHI CAL BOS WAS SDA AUS PHI CAL AUS PHI SDA WAS SDA AUS
19-2218-23 18-25 16-21 22-19 18-19
Washington Kastles BOS AUS SPR SDA PHI PHI PHI BOS BOS AUS SPR CAL AUS BOS
20-1717-22 21-16 18-22 21-20 23-6

Television

The 2015 season is the second year of a four-year television rights contract between WTT and ESPN, Inc. The WTT Final will be telecast live on ESPN2. ESPN3 will stream the conference championship matches along with one match each night during the regular season.[10]

In a June 2, 2015 press release, WTT announced that the WTT Final would start at 11:30 am EDT on August 2, and would be streamed from the start by ESPN3. Live television coverage will begin on ESPN2 at 1:00 pm with the match already in progress. The start times for the conference championship matches will be 7:00 pm local time on Thursday July 30.[11]

Four regular-season matches will be nationally televised on the Tennis Channel as well as on regional sports networks Altitude Sports and Entertainment, Comcast SportsNet affiliates, Mediacom Connections and MSG. These matches are as follows:

Nationally televised matches will also be streamed on ESPN3. In addition to the televised ones, the following regular-season matches will also be streamed exclusively on ESPN3:

Sponsorship

On December 8, 2014, WTT announced that its title-sponsorship agreement with Mylan N.V. was extended for two more years through the 2017 season. As part of its partnership with WTT, Mylan will continue to sponsor events at which children meet with WTT players and are introduced to tennis, charitable events and the Mylan Aces program which allows each team to select a local charity for which it can earn money donated by Mylan by recording the most aces in the league on a given day during the regular season.[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "World TeamTennis and Mylan Announce Three-Year Collaboration". World TeamTennis. October 16, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Mylan World TeamTennis Returns to Sacramento Area in 2015 with California Dream". World TeamTennis. February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 "Serena Williams, Eugenie Bouchard Headline Mylan World TeamTennis Player Draft for Historic 40th Season". World TeamTennis. March 16, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Player Draft". World TeamTennis. March 3, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  5. ↑ 2015 Mylan WTT Official Rules Guide (PDF). World TeamTennis. 2015. p. 17–18. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  6. ↑ 2014 Mylan WTT Official Rules Guide (PDF). World TeamTennis. 2014. p. 18. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  7. ↑ 2015 Mylan WTT Official Rules Guide (PDF). World TeamTennis. 2015. p. 28. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ 2015 Mylan WTT Official Rules Guide (PDF). World TeamTennis. 2015. p. 26. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  9. ↑ 2015 Mylan WTT Official Rules Guide (PDF). World TeamTennis. 2015. p. 27. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Mylan WTT, ESPN Agree to Multi-Year Deal for Matches on ESPN2, ESPN3". World TeamTennis. June 24, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  11. 1 2 3 "Mylan World TeamTennis – Facts & Figures" (PDF) (Press release). World TeamTennis. June 2, 2015. p. 11. Retrieved July 6, 2015.
  12. ↑ "World TeamTennis and Mylan Announce Title Sponsorship Extension through 2017". World TeamTennis. December 8, 2014. Retrieved April 9, 2015.

External links

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