For a few weeks each summer, tennis players get a taste of what professional athletes in most sports experience every day: playing on a team. With its signature multi-colored courts, Mylan World TeamTennis begins its 41st season in 2016, bringing a faster, brighter and louder version of the game across the United States. But underneath the untraditional format and fan-friendly exterior lies a foundation that plays a serious role in tennis careers, from owners to coaches to players.
Every spring, a draft is held in which players are chosen by teams in reverse order of the previous year’s standings. Each team fields a roster of men and women who will combine to play five events each match: women’s singles, men’s singles, women’s doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Each event is played to five games, with a nine-point tiebreaker held at 4-all. Each game is played to four points, with no-ad scoring. To speed up the pace of play, a 25-second service clock is used between points, and lets are played.
“We feel like matches are taking too long,” Mylan WTT co-founder Billie Jean King says. “I don’t want [matches] to be longer than two hours, maybe two-and-a-half if it’s an unbelievable match. People’s concentration spans are short.”
As part of the touring lifestyle, players are given hotel rooms, rental cars, a daily allowance, massages, pedicures and gift bags—not insignificant to the many participants who reside outside the Top 50. Practice partners and coaches are guaranteed, as well as plenty of competitive matches against top players.
“You get to live a bit like what other sports teams live like—travel with the team, everything is paid for,” said Alex Kuznetsov, who played for the Boston Lobsters in 2015. “When you’re out there [on tour] by yourself, you have to think of your coaches’ expenses, your expenses. But if you’re playing here, everything is pretty much taken care of for you.”