World Team Tennis is a concept, devised by Billie
Jean King, which came to fruition in the 1970's and has recently made somewhat of a
comeback. World Team Tennis was at it's peak in the mid 1970's, with the likes of
Evert, Connors, and Borg among its ranks. The concept gradually died for various
reasons in the late 70's but has been revised in a scaled-down form.
The basic Team Tennis concept is as follows: The Team
Tennis franchise is similar to US baseball and football, where teams based in various US
cities compete against one another. Unlike baseball and football, team members get
paid based on their performance rather than a fixed amount.
Bonuses are also awarded to playoff teams and to the
award winners (Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year). In
1995, a rookie could earn up to $57,500 while a returning player could earn up to
$53,500. Teams consist of two male and two female players plus a coach. Each
team usually has one local player of each gender who serves as an alternate at home
matches.
There are two five-team divisions. Teams play
two teams in the other division only once while playing home and away against the other
seven teams, over a 4-week period following Wimbledon. The division winners, two wild card
teams (teams having the best records among the remainder), and the Championship weekend
host team square off in single-elimination playoffs at the end of this period. The
champion for the season is the team surviving the single-elimination playoff tournament.
A Team Tennis match consists of five sets: one set
each of men's and women's singles, men's and women's doubles, and mixed doubles. The
order of match play is doubles-singles-doubles-singles-doubles, with the coach of the host
team determining the exact order of sets (e.g., women's doubles first). Prior to each set,
a certain amount of time is allowed for player warm-ups. A change of sides occurs every
fourth game after a set starts, rather than every odd game played.
The scoring is "no-ad," meaning that 40-40
is a "game point" instead of deuce. If the set score reaches 5-5, a
9-point tie-break is played (first to 5 points with an advantage of only 1 point required)
to determine the winner of the set. Match score is determined by total games won by
a team, not by how many sets are won.
At the close of the match, the team leading in games
won must win the last game played to win the match. Otherwise, fifth-set play
continues until this happens or until each team is equal in number of games won.
In
the latter case, a 13-point super tie-break is then played to determine the match winner.
