Freedoms add Ginepri to 2015 team

The Freedoms retained three of their four players from last season's playoff team Monday in the World TeamTennis draft.

"We wanted to maintain our continuity," team owner Billie Jean King said in a teleconference with reporters. "The chemistry from last year was so good that we really didn't want to mess it up. And I think it is going to be even stronger because we don't have to go through the preliminary introductions of getting to know each other again."

Last season marked the Freedoms' first playoff appearance since 2007. They went 9-5 and reached the Eastern Conference finals before being eliminated by eventual champion Washington.

The Freedoms selected fourth in each of the draft's four rounds. In the first round, they protected Taylor Townsend on the women's side. In the second, they made their only new addition, adding Robby Ginepri. And in the third and fourth rounds they again protected players, opting to keep 2014 WTT men's MVP Marcelo Melo and protecting veteran Liezel Huber.

Huber is recovering from offseason knee surgery, but King expects her to be available when the season begins July 12. The league will release schedules in about 10 days.

Townsend, 18, is the 96th-ranked woman in the world. Last season she replaced Vicky Duval and played a significant role in the Freedoms' playoff march.

Newcomer Ginepri is best known for his 2005 run at the U.S. Open, when as an unseeded player he reached the semifinals by knocking off eighth-seeded Guillermo Coria, 13th-seeded Richard Gasquet and 29th-seeded Tommy Hass before being eliminated in five sets by Andre Agassi.

Melo, the No. 3 ranked doubles player in the world, reached the semifinals of the 2014 U.S. Open, and in January made the semifinals of the Australian Open. Melo and Huber formed the best mixed doubles team in the league last year.

The Freedoms play their home matches at Villanova's Pavilion.