Returning to Australia for the first time in eight years, tennis legend Billie Jean King was at Melbourne Park on Monday to launch World TeamTennis (WTT), which will debut at Australian Open 2010 on Wednesday evening.
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The exhibition event will take place on Margaret Court Arena at 5.30pm, featuring the Australian team of Pat Rafter, Pat Cash, Nicole Bradtke and Alicia Molik (coached by John Fitzgerald) taking on the International team comprising Tracy Austin, Goran Ivanisevic, Todd Martin and Mary Joe Fernandez. Fernandez will also coach the International team.
King was joined at a press conference on Monday afternoon by WTT CEO and commissioner Ilana Kloss, who said Australia was the perfect place to introduce WTT outside of the United States.
“Australians are fantastic at all sports, but they love to support their team,” Kloss said.
“So we think that our product actually would fit very, very well down here … When Billie started World TeamTennis, it was called World TeamTennis for a reason. Up until this point, we've had international players, but we really haven't expanded it outside of America.
“For us, it's very exciting to be here, to really look forward beyond the match on Wednesday night. How can we be a bigger part of tennis in Australia, helping to grow it.”
King co-founded WTT – a mixed-gender professional tennis league – in 1974 in the United States. The concept involves four players per team, competing for points across five rubbers: men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Matches feature no-advantage scoring and first-to-five game sets with a nine-point tie-breaker at four-all, and teams must win the final rubber to win the tie, even if they have won all preceding rubbers.
As well as its unique format, WTT blazed the trail for innovations such as music at changeovers, players hitting balls into the stands after matches, Hawkeye video replay and multi-coloured courts.
Now in its 35th year, King said that 84 “wonderful” Australians had participated in WTT since its creation, including Rod Laver, Margaret Court, Ken Rosewall, Tony Roche, John Newcombe and Wendy Turnbull. Australian doubles specialist Rennae Stubbs, currently ranked world No. 7, played for the Washington Kastles team that won the 2009 World TeamTennis title. Current Australian players Casey Dellacqua, Joe Sirianni and Ashley Fisher have also taken part in WTT.
Although it has not been decided how WTT will be incorporated into Australia’s tennis calendar outside of the Wednesday night event, Kloss said there was an “open landscape” of opportunity.
“It's really up to them (Craig Tiley and Tennis Australia) to tell us how they think (we) can help benefit tennis in Australia. For us, it's a privilege to be here at the Australian Open, to have this incredible global stage to showcase our format. So we're very, very excited,” she said.
King last visited Melbourne Park to provide guest commentary for Channel 7 during Australian Open 2002. She founded the Women’s Tennis Association in 1973 and retired as one of the sports’ most successful players in history with 39 Grand Slam titles. A champion for equal rights and gender equality, she has been a vocal advocate of equal prizemoney for male and female players at Grand Slam events. She said the WTT concept reflected these ideals.
“Equal prizemoney was a fight for the message more than the money … It's about the message of being included, both genders always, trying to help each other. We (a breakaway group of female players who established a professional women’s tennis tour in 1970) were big believers in that, the nine of us,” King said.
“The players today on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are actually living our dream, they're living the dream. We want more and more countries to have that opportunity, more cultures.
“If you watch a World TeamTennis match, you see my philosophy on life. It's equal contribution by both genders, it's men and women working together. The children who watch it are getting that message even though they don't know it. Hopefully it will help them be better citizens of the world when they grow up.
“I know it's philosophical. I'm very idealistic. I have not changed. I'm not going to. I really believe in it. That's why World TeamTennis is important to me personally.”
Ground passes can be purchased for $19 to attend the WTT event on Wednesday.
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