New-look Philadelphia Freedoms to open World TeamTennis season
The team has added Sloane Stephens and Darian King, who are friends, to a group that believes it is more tight-knit this season.
As the Freedoms prepare to begin another season of World TeamTennis on Sunday in Washington, it's tough to find a pair of their players who aren't close in some way.
Taylor Townsend, Fabrice Martin and Donald Young are returning. Townsend's coach is Young's father, Donald Sr.
Sloane Stephens, who played doubles with Townsend in two tournaments in 2015, joins the Freedoms this year. So does Darian King, a close friend of Stephens'.
"All in all, it'll help with the team dynamic," Townsend said. "Seeing someone you're familiar with on the sidelines, and they kind of know how you are, I think it just gives us a little bit of an advantage."
With that group, the tight-knit Freedoms will open Sunday against the New York Empire. The two teams will meet again Monday at St. Joseph's University's Hagan Arena, where the Freedoms will play this season while Villanova's Pavilion, their usual venue, is under construction.
All four of the Freedoms' full-time players are intriguing names who have found some spotlight at some point in their careers.
Stephens has the highest profile of the four. She rose as high as No. 11 in the world rankings in 2013, the year she beat Serena Williams in the Australian Open. But a foot injury sidelined her after the 2016 Rio Olympics until she returned at Wimbledon last week. There, she lost in the first round to Alison Riske, 6-2, 7-5.
King enters his first WTT season as the 119th-ranked player in the world. When he upset Bernard Tomic in the Memphis Open in February, King became the first Barbados native ever to win an ATP match.
Martin has become a skilled doubles player and earned WTT Rookie of the Year honors for the Freedoms last year.
And Townsend, 21, was No. 1 in the world junior rankings in 2012. As a pro, she improved her ranking in the first half of this season and jumped to the main draw of the French Open. She has played for the Freedoms in each of the past two seasons. But she has never known her teammates this well.
Young is on the Freedoms' schedule for four matches, including Monday's home opener. The 43rd-ranked Young fell to Rafael Nadal in the second round at Wimbledon.
The Freedoms will also add Andy Roddick for one match on July 25. Venus Williams will visit Philadelphia with the Washington Kastles on July 24.
Roddick, Williams, John Isner and others will play single matches as roster exemptions. With three of four players age 25 or younger, the standard cast of the Freedoms holds some promise going into the season.