The 2016

World TeamTennis World TeamTennis (WTT) is a mixed-gender professional tennis league played with a team format in the United States, which was founded in 1973. The league's season normally takes place in the summer months. Players from the ATP and WTA take a ...

season was the 41st

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

of the top professional

team tennis Team tennis is a tennis tournament which consist of matches between different groups of players each competing to win the tournament for their team. The format is usually an altered version of the professionally played World TeamTennis format; con ...

league in the United States. Pursuant to a

sponsorship Sponsoring something (or someone) is the act of supporting an event, activity, person, or organization financially or through the provision of products or services. The individual or group that provides the support, similar to a benefactor, is k ...

agreement with Mylan N.V., the official name of the league was Mylan World TeamTennis in 2016. The

San Diego Aviators The San Diego Aviators are a World TeamTennis (WTT) team that plays at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California in the United States. The team is the successor to two WTT franchises. The first was created in 1995, as the New York O ...

defeated the Orange County Breakers, 25–14 in extended play, in the WTT Finals to win the King Trophy as WTT champions.

Competition format

The 2016 World TeamTennis season included six teams. Unlike previous seasons, the teams were not split into two conferences. Each team played a 12-

match A match is a tool for starting a fire. Typically, matches are made of small wooden sticks or stiff paper. One end is coated with a material that can be ignited by friction generated by striking the match against a suitable surface. Wooden matc ...

regular-season schedule with six home and six away matches. The top two teams in the regular season qualified for the World TeamTennis Final at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City. The higher seed was treated as the "home" team in the WTT Final and had the right to determine order of play. The winner of the WTT Final was awarded the King Trophy.

Franchise movement, contraction and expansion

On December 14, 2015, the Austin Aces announced that the team would move back to

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

for the 2016 season and be renamed the Orange County Breakers. On January 27, 2016, the Breakers announced that they would play their home matches at Breakers Stadium at the Newport Beach Tennis Club. In December 2015, Randy Peters Catering of

Citrus Heights, California Citrus Heights is a city in Sacramento County, California. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 87,583, up from 83,301 at the 2010 U.S. Census. History Citrus Heights voters approved the measure to incorporate the City on No ...

sued the California Dream and its three

owners Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

in Sacramento County Superior Court demanding US$19,249 for its unpaid bills as the team's food concessionaire. Also in December 2015, one of the Dream's minority owners, Bob Kaliski, told '' The Sacramento Bee'' that he had personally lost US$175,000 investing in the team and that majority owner Jeff Launius had told him the Dream owed its vendors US$192,000 at the end of the season. Kaliski said, "I don't know if the team is going to be back or not. I know I'm not going to be back. I don't know about the rest of the team." WTT said that the Dream had until the end of December to meet its financial commitments to the league in order to secure its spot for 2016. On January 13, 2016, WTT announced that the Dream franchise had been terminated due to noncompliance with the team's obligations to the league. On February 17, 2016, WTT announced that the

Boston Lobsters The Boston Lobsters were a World TeamTennis team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Lobsters played home matches at the Walter Brown Arena, Boston University, in Boston, MA. The most recent Boston Lobsters were a reincarnation of two pr ...

had folded. The team had been owned and operated by the league during the 2015 season after the retirement of its former

owner Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

Bahar Uttam, who walked away from it. WTT had been unable to find a new owner for the franchise. In a press release, WTT commissioner

Ilana Kloss Ilana Sheryl Kloss (born 22 March 1956) is a former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and commissioner of World TeamTennis from 2001-21. She was the World's No. 1 ranked doubles player in 1976, and World No. 19 in singles in 1979. She w ...

said, "We spent more than a year seeking a local owner or ownership group, but unfortunately we were not able to find the right fit." She went on to say that WTT was leaving the door open for a return to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

if the right ownership could be found. Keith Callahan, general manager of the Manchester Athletic Club said that the club had been approached by WTT to take over ownership of the team but had turned it down. "We just made a decision not to do that," he said. "It would have taken an enormous amount of resources to take on an operation like that, and we made a decision to commit those resources to improving the business and to making improvements for our members to make the operation better for them and for the community." WTT's asking price for the Lobsters was US$1 million. Concurrent with the announcement of the folding of the Lobsters, WTT announced an expansion team for New York City named the New York Empire that began play in 2016. The team played its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York.

Draft

WTT conducted its 2016

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vesse ...

on March 25, in

Key Biscayne, Florida Key Biscayne is an island town in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The population was 12,344 at the 2010 census. Key Biscayne lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. The village is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originall ...

. The order in which teams selected was based on the results the teams achieved in 2015, with weaker teams selecting earlier and stronger teams selecting later. The draft order is ordinarily determined as follows: # Nonplayoff teams ranked from worst regular-season record to best # Conference championship loser with the worse record of the two # Conference championship loser with the better record of the two # WTT Final loser # WTT champion Expansion teams select in the middle of each round. If there is an even number of teams, an expansion team will select in the middle position that is closest to the first pick. There were three nonplayoff teams in 2015, and ranked from worst record to best record, they were #

Springfield Lasers The Springfield Lasers are a World TeamTennis franchise. The franchise was purchased and donated to the city of Springfield, Missouri by the Cooper family in 1996. They play their home matches at Cooper Tennis Complex, Mediacom Stadium at Cooper ...

However, the Lobsters folded prior to the draft. Therefore, the Lasers and Aviators were the only two nonplayoff teams and assigned the preliminary first and second positions. The Philadelphia Freedoms lost the 2015 Eastern Conference Championship Match and had a worse record than the California Dream, which lost the Western Conference Championship Match. Therefore, the Freedoms were assigned the preliminary third position. Since the Dream franchise was terminated, it was not assigned a draft position. The Orange County Breakers, playing in 2015, as the Austin Aces, lost the WTT Final and were assigned the preliminary fourth draft position. The WTT Champion

Washington Kastles The Washington Kastles is one of eight franchises that compete in World TeamTennis. Based in Washington, D.C., since 2008, the Kastles won the WTT championship in the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons. The team is named for Kastle S ...

were assigned the preliminary fifth draft position. The expansion New York Empire was assigned the third draft position by rule, since there was an even number of teams, and this is the middle position closest to the first position. This resulted in the Freedoms, Breakers and Kastles all moving down one position from their preliminary positions. Each team could protect certain players from its 2015 roster.

Marquee player A marquee player is an athlete who is considered exceptionally popular, skilled, or otherwise outstanding, especially in professional sports. Its name comes from theater marquees, on which the names of the stars of productions in said theater ar ...

s or doubles teams and wildcard players could be protected if they appeared in a match for the team in 2015. Exempt, roster and substitute players who appeared in at least three matches for the team in 2015, could also be protected. Teams could also protect players who qualified for protection based on match appearances in 2014, but were unable to play in 2015, due to injury. Teams holding the right to protect players could trade those rights before or during the draft. If a team chooses a roster-exempt player, one who is not required to be a full-time member of the team, it is 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. Teams that have two male and two female full-time players may select roster-exempt players in rounds past the fourth round. The selections made are shown in the tables below. ;Marquee draft – first round ;Marquee draft – second round ;Roster draft – first round ;Roster draft – second round ;Roster draft – third round ;Roster draft – fourth round ;Roster draft – fifth round Notes:

Event chronology

Off-season

* December 14, 2015: The Austin Aces announced that the team would move back to

for the 2016 season and be renamed the Orange County Breakers. * January 13, 2016: WTT announced that the California Dream franchise had been terminated due to noncompliance with the team's obligations to the league. * February 17, 2016: WTT announced that the

had folded, because the league had been unable to find a new owner for the franchise. * February 17, 2016: WTT announced an expansion team for New York City to be named the New York Empire that will begin play in 2016. The team announced it would play its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York. * March 25, 2016: WTT conducted its 2016 player draft.

Regular season

* July 31, 2016: The New York Empire made its debut with a home loss to the

, 22–15. * August 4, 2016: The New York Empire secured the first win in franchise history, when it defeated the

, 19–15, at Forest Hills Stadium. * August 10, 2016: With a record of 2 wins and 7 losses, the New York Empire was eliminated from postseason contention when it lost to the Philadelphia Freedoms, 17–16, in a super tiebreaker (7–3). * August 10, 2016: With a record of 2 wins and 7 losses, the

were eliminated from postseason contention when they lost to the Orange County Breakers, 22–19, in extended play. It is the second consecutive season the Lasers have missed the postseason. * August 11, 2016: With a record of 8 wins and 2 losses, the Orange County Breakers clinched a berth in the WTT Finals for the second consecutive season when they defeated the New York Empire, 19–17. * August 12, 2016: With a record of 5 wins and 5 losses, the five-time defending champion

were eliminated from postseason contention, when they won the third set of men's doubles in their match against the

, 5–3. At the start of play, the Kastles could only qualify for the postseason in the case of a three-way tie with the Philadelphia Freedoms and the

. In games won in matches against common opponents, the Aviators led with 149 with one common-opponent match to play, the Freedoms had 136 with one common-opponent match to play, and the Kastles had 118 with two common-opponent matches to play. Therefore, the maximum number of games the Kastles could win in matches against common opponents was 168 at the start of play. The Aviators won 19 games in the first four sets of their match against the New York Empire, which started one hour earlier than the Kastles' match in Springfield, to reach 168 games won against common opponents. The Kastles still could have won the next step of the three-way standings tiebreaker on fewest games lost in matches against common opponents. However, after dropping the first two sets of the match, the only way the Kastles could still reach 168 games won against common opponents was by losing the first four sets and winning the match, 25–24, in a super tiebreaker. Therefore, in an odd set of circumstances, when the Kastles won the third set of their match, moments after the fourth set of the Aviators-Empire match was completed, the maximum number of games the Kastles could win against common opponents was reduced to 166, resulting in mathematical elimination. It is the first time the Kastles have missed the postseason since 2010. The Kastles went on to win the match in which their run of championships came to an end, 21–20. * August 12, 2016: With a record of 8 wins and 3 losses, the

clinched a berth in the WTT Finals with a 24–16 victory over the New York Empire. It is the Aviators' first postseason appearance since

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

, and first appearance in the WTT Finals for the franchise, since they lost in the 2010 Finals playing as the

New York Sportimes The New York Sportimes were a professional tennis team competing in World TeamTennis (WTT). The team was originally based in eastern Long Island from 2000 to 2002, before moving to Westchester County, New York in 2003, and then to New York City in ...

. The Aviators victory also eliminated the Philadelphia Freedoms, who had won earlier in the evening to improve their record to 6 wins and 5 losses, from postseason contention. It is the first time the Freedoms have missed the postseason since

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

. * August 13, 2016: With a record of 8 wins and 3 losses, the

clinched the best regular-season record in WTT, when the

defeated the Orange County Breakers, 25–19, in extended play. This made the Aviators the top seed in the WTT Finals and gave them the option to set the order of play.

WTT Finals

* August 26, 2016: The

defeated the Orange County Breakers, 25–14 in extended play, at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City to win the King Trophy as 2016 WTT champions. The Aviators were led by WTT Finals Most Valuable Player Raven Klaasen who teamed with

Darija Jurak Darija Jurak Schreiber (née Jurak; ; born 5 April 1984) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Her career-high doubles ranking is world No. 9, achieved on 15 November 2021. Her best WTA ranking in singles of 188 she reached in April 2004. ...

to take the opening set of mixed doubles, 5–2, and later with 2016 WTT Male MVP

Ryan Harrison Ryan Harrison (born May 7, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. Harrison has won one career ATP title in singles at the 2017 Memphis Open to go along with four in doubles, including the 2017 French Open. Before turning 16, Harriso ...

for another 5–2 set win in the third set of men's doubles.

Shelby Rogers Shelby Rogers (born October 13, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. She has career-high WTA rankings of world No. 30 in singles achieved August 2022 and No. 40 in doubles, achieved February 2022, and has won six singles and two doub ...

took the second set of women's singles from 2016 WTT Female MVP

Nicole Gibbs Nicole Gibbs (born March 3, 1993) is an American retired tennis player. She won seven singles and five doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 25 July 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 68. On 19 September 2016, she peaked at ...

, 5–2, before teaming with Jurak for another 5–2 set win in the fourth set of women's doubles. After losing the fifth set in a tiebreaker, Harrison, who won a US Open qualifying match earlier in the day to secure a spot in the

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournament, sealed the victory when he held serve in the second game of extended play. "It feels really nice to get the MVP award, but it feels a bit undeserving, because our whole team played very well," said Klaasen. "We were apart for four days, and when we saw each other again last night, it felt like we had been apart for a year. Our team chemistry has been great. We will be friends for the rest of our lives." Aviators coach John Lloyd, who was named 2016 WTT Coach of the Year a few days earlier, said, "It brings a lot of memories back; I played back in the US Open when it was on

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

. In fact, on this court I lost to the great Björn Borg. It was nice to play on this beautiful court. To come back and win this title was great." It was the third WTT title for the Aviators franchise, having won in 2005, playing as the

and in 2008, playing as the New York Buzz, and it was the team's first WTT championship since moving to

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

Standings

''Reference:''

Results table

''Reference:''

WTT Finals match summary

August 26, 2016 at Forest Hills Stadium, New York City, New York: #1

SAN DIEGO AVIATORS The San Diego Aviators are a World TeamTennis (WTT) team that plays at the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California in the United States. The team is the successor to two WTT franchises. The first was created in 1995, as the New York O ...

25, #2 Orange County Breakers 14 (extended play) * Mixed Doubles:

and Raven Klaasen (Aviators) def. Alla Kudryavtseva and

Scott Lipsky Scott Lipsky (born August 14, 1981 in Merrick, New York) is an American former professional tennis player and coach. As a player, Lipsky was primarily a doubles specialist. As a junior, Lipsky was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. in singles in 1995, an ...

(Breakers), 5–2 * Women's Singles:

(Aviators) def.

(Breakers), 5–2 * Men's Doubles:

and Raven Klaasen (Aviators) def. Scott Lipsky and Dennis Novikov (Breakers), 5–2 * Women's Doubles: Darija Jurak and Shelby Rogers (Aviators) def. Nicole Gibbs and Alla Kudryavtseva (Breakers), 5–2 * Men's Singles: Dennis Novikov (Breakers) def. Ryan Harrison (Aviators), 5–4 * Extended Play – Men's Singles: Ryan Harrison (Aviators) 1, Dennis Novikov (Breakers) 1 Note:

Individual statistical leaders

The tables below show the WTT players who had the highest regular-season winning percentages in each of the league's five events. Only players who played in at least 40% of the total number of games played by their team in a particular event are eligible to be listed among the official WTT league leaders for that event. ;Men's singles ;Women's singles ;Men's doubles ;Women's doubles ;Mixed doubles

Individual honors

''Reference:''

Team statistics

The tables below show the regular-season winning percentages of each team in each of the league's five events. ;Men's singles ;Women's singles ;Men's doubles ;Women's doubles ;Mixed doubles

Television

The 2016 season was the third year of a four-year television rights contract between WTT and ESPN, Inc. The WTT Final was

streamed Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

live on ESPN3, which also streamed one match each night during the regular season.

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

's live telecast of the WTT Final began at 5:00 pm EDT, one hour after the match's start time. The following regular-season matches were streamed live on ESPN3 and rebroadcast the following day on the Tennis Channel: * 6:00 pm EDT, Sunday, July 31:

at New York Empire * 7:00 pm EDT, Monday, August 1:

at Washington Kastles * 7:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, August 2: Springfield Lasers at Philadelphia Freedoms * 10:00 pm EDT, Wednesday, August 3:

at Orange County Breakers * 7:00 pm EDT, Thursday, August 4: Springfield Lasers at Philadelphia Freedoms * 10:00 pm EDT, Friday, August 5: New York Empire at San Diego Aviators * 10:00 pm EDT, Saturday, August 6: Washington Kastles at San Diego Aviators * 10:00 pm EDT, Sunday, August 7: Philadelphia Freedoms at Orange County Breakers * 7:00 pm EDT, Monday, August 8: New York Empire at Washington Kastles * 7:00 pm EDT, Tuesday, August 9: Washington Kastles at New York Empire * 7:00 pm EDT, Wednesday, August 10: New York Empire at Philadelphia Freedoms * 8:00 pm EDT, Thursday, August 11: San Diego Aviators at Springfield Lasers * 7:00 pm EDT, Friday, August 12: San Diego Aviators at New York Empire * 5:00 pm EDT, Saturday, August 13: Orange County Breakers at Washington Kastles Select matches streamed live by ESPN3 were rebroadcast by

regional sports network In the United States and Canada, a regional sports network (RSN) is a cable television channel (many of which are also distributed on direct broadcast satellite services) that presents sports programming to a local market or geographical region. ...

Altitude Sports and Entertainment Altitude Sports and Entertainment (usually referred to as simply Altitude) is an American regional sports cable and satellite television channel owned by Stan Kroenke's Kroenke Sports & Entertainment. The channel, which serves the Rocky Moun ...

Comcast SportsNet NBC Sports Regional Networks is the collective name for a group of regional sports networks in the United States that are primarily owned and operated by the NBCUniversal division of the cable television company Comcast. The networks were origin ...

affiliates, Mediacom Connections and

MSG Monosodium glutamate (MSG), also known as sodium glutamate, is the sodium Salt (chemistry), salt of glutamic acid. MSG is found naturally in some foods including tomatoes and cheese in this glutamic acid form. MSG is used in cooking as a fl ...

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 A donation is a gift for charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donation may satisfy medical needs such as bl ...

by Mylan by recording the most aces in the league on a given day during the regular season.

References

External links

World TeamTennis official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2016 World TeamTennis season World TeamTennis season World TeamTennis seasons

Competition format

Franchise movement, contraction and expansion

Draft

Event chronology

Off-season

Regular season

WTT Finals

Standings

Results table

WTT Finals match summary

Individual statistical leaders

Individual honors

Team statistics

Television

Sponsorship

See also

References

External links