World TeamTennis, an innovative mixed-gender professional tennis league, will start from July 5 at the Greenbrier, West Virginia, and up to 500 fans will be allowed to attend matches during its three-week season, tournament organisers said yesterday.
WTT said it would adhere to all health and safety protocols required by authorities to ensure the well-being of its players, coaches and essential staff amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Grand Slam champions Sofia Kenin and Sloane Stephens are set to take part in the event, which will consist of a 63-match regular season followed by the playoffs.
WTT plans to stage at least three matches per day at the Greenbrier’s 2,500-seat outdoor stadium, while an indoor court will be installed for back-up. “The overwhelming feedback from our players is that they want to play WTT and are comfortable in doing so in a safe environment, which is our number one priority,” WTT CEO Carlos Silva said. The WTT also said it is increasing prize money to a record $5mn, with an added $1mn awarded in WTT Playoffs compensation. All matches will be televised or streamed live on CBS, CBS Sports Network, Tennis Channel and ESPN+, tournament organisers said.
Tennis’s top professional tours, the men’s ATP and women’s WTA, have been shut down since March 8 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak. Tournaments in the United States and Germany have since taken place with strict social distancing measures and no fans in attendance. New Zealand will stage a team-based tennis tournament for local-based men’s players from June 3 while world number one Novak Djokovic has organised a tournament across the Balkans from June 13-July 5.
World number four Kenin, a 21-year-old American who captured her first Grand Slam title on February 1 at Melbourne, will play for the Philadelphia Freedoms while 37th-ranked Stephens, the 2018 French Open runner-up, will compete for the expansion Chicago Smash. On the men’s side, Bulgaria’s 19th-ranked Grigor Dimitrov will play for the Orange County Breakers with doubles stars Bob and Mike Bryan on the Vegas Rollers.


Cilic and Coric to join Djokovic’s Balkan tour
Croatians Marin Cilic and Borna Coric will join world number one Novak Djokovic’s tennis tournament to be played across the Balkans June 13-July 5, the Serb said yesterday. Their inclusion will complete a formidable field also featuring Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov, with the first of four legs set to take place in Belgrade on June 13 and 14.
The series will then move to Croatia’s coastal resort Zadar, where 2014 US Open winner Cilic and 23-year-old Coric will take centre stage in front of their home fans. “I thank Marin and Borna for joining the tour without asking for any financial compensation,” said Djokovic, the winner of 17 Grand Slam titles who went on an 18-0 run at the start of the season before the stoppage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I have known both of them for a long time, they are great guys and we are good friends, so I am really looking forward to meeting up with them in Zadar. Marin is one of the best players ever from this part of the world while Borna has the potential to break into the top five on the men’s ATP Tour.”
The final two legs of the tour are provisionally to be held in Montenegro and Bosnia, but Djokovic revealed they might have to be moved if the infrastructure is not completed in time. Djokovic returned to his hometown Belgrade on Sunday after being stranded in the Spanish resort of Marbella for two months, where he was visiting his younger brother Marko when the pandemic broke out.
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