Photo Source: World Team Tennis
The first week of the World Team Tennis season closed with an eventful Sunday that featured the league’s first broadcast on CBS Sports.
The Philadelphia Freedoms defeated the Vegas Rollers in front of a national TV audience on Sunday afternoon, as WTT CEO Carlos Silva was in attendance to watch the Vegas franchise at Orleans Arena for the first time.
The Rollers drew 4,683 spectators over their two-night weekend homestand.
“You’ve seen what’s happened here in Vegas with the Golden Knights, and this weekend had that same feeling,” Silva said. “I couldn’t believe how many people were here supporting the Vegas Rollers. It was awesome. I was surprised at how great it was, but I kind of had this feeling that the Vegas tennis community was gonna support this. They’re already supporting sports in such a big way; we knew it would all come together.”
Recently acquired Feliciano Lopez defeated Sam Querrey 5-4 while the French tandem of Fabrice Martin and Adrian Mannarino defeated the Bryan Brothers 5-4 in doubles.
Philadelphia, which has won six in a row, got a big contribution from Taylor Townsend and Raquel Atawo, who defeated Harriet Dart and Asia Muhammad 5-0.
The Rollers dropped to 2-5 on the season.
Springfield Lasers Finally Fall
The Springfield Lasers said goodbye to their season-opening five-match winning streak when they fell to the San Diego Aviators on Sunday.
The Aviators remain tied with the New York Empire for third place in the overall WTT standings after knocking off last year’s champions at the Omni La Costa Resort in San Diego.
The Empire braved a 44-minute rain delay at the Carey Leeds Center for Tennis and Learning and defeated the Orlando Storm 23-18.
Kirsten Flipkens won an important tiebreaker in women’s singles with Whitney Osuigwe before Neal Skupski and Ulises Blanch clinched the victory with a 5-4 set over Evan King and Neal’s older brother Ken.
Both New York and San Diego come it at 4-3 on the season.