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2006 WTT FINALS AWARDED TO NEWPORT BEACH |
NEW YORK (March 9, 2006) --- The top teams in the World TeamTennis Pro League presented by Advanta will head west to determine the League’s best when Newport Beach hosts the 2006 WTT Finals, July 28-30, at the Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach, Calif.
The League awarded the 2006 WTT Finals to the Newport Beach Breakers at the semiannual WTT Owners Meetings held recently in New York. The Newport Beach Breakers won the King Trophy in 2004 and was runner-up last season.
The regular season runs July 6-26 with the top two teams from the Eastern Conference and the top two from the Western Conference advancing to the WTT Finals Weekend which will be staged at the conclusion of the regular season. The four teams will be seeded based on their regular season records, regardless of conference. If the host team does not qualify for the Finals, there will be a special wild card match on Thursday, July 27 with the host team facing the fourth-seeded team. The winner of that match would advance to the semifinals to take on the top-seeded team. Two semifinals are set for Saturday, July 29, with the finals being held on Sunday, July 30.
Ticket packages for the WTT Finals Weekend are available through the Newport Beach Breakers office at 877-628-3664.
The New York Sportimes captured the 2005 WTT Championship behind the stellar play of WTT Finals MVP Martina Hingis. The Sportimes, along with the 11 other WTT teams, will put together their 2006 lineups at the WTT Player Draft, scheduled for March 28 in Miami. The League announced last week that 14-time Grand Slam champion Pete Sampras will make his WTT debut this summer.
Now in its 31st year of play, World TeamTennis is well known for introducing innovative elements to tennis. Instant replay, which debuted at WTT matches in 2005 as the WTT Coaches Challenge, marked the first time the technology had been used in a professional tennis match, will return to select WTT matches in 2006. Other WTT firsts include co-ed format, cumulative and no-ad scoring, on-court coaching, Supertiebreakers, multi-colored courts and player names on back of their shirts.
The unique gender-balanced team concept for WTT was created in the early 70s by League co- founders Billie Jean King and Larry King. The format used for a WTT Pro League match features teams comprised of two men, two women and a coach. Each match consists of five sets, with one set each of men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Advanta is the presenting sponsor of the WTT Pro League and the official business credit card of World TeamTennis. Official WTT Pro League sponsors also include Gatorade, Geico and Wilson Racquet Sports. For more information on WTT, visit www.WTT.com.
Media Contacts: Rosie Crews, GEM Group – 817.684.0366 (rcrews@gemgroup.com )
Josh Weissman, GEM Group – 323.850.6584 (jweissman@gemgroup.com )