March 16, 2015
Serena Williams is coming to Philadelphia. However, she'll be playing against the home team.
The 2015 Mylan World TeamTennis Draft draft happened on Monday, and Williams was selected by the Washington Kastles to play for the team during this summer's season. The Kastles will visit the Philadelphia Freedoms this July for one of the team's seven home matches at the Villanova University Pavillon.
The match will mark Serena's first WTT appearance in Philly since 2009. The team's official schedule will be released later this month.
Williams is arguably the most accomplished women's tennis player of all time, as Olympic Gold Medalist and multiple championships in major single's events are just a few of her accolades.
In the draft, every player in the league is available, but teams can protect their players with one of their picks instead of choosing a new player, forfeiting a pick for doing so. With their first selection, the Freedoms protected Taylor Townsend, who defeated Williams' sister Venus in a match against the Kastles in her 2014 rookie campaign.
The team also protected last year's league MVP Marcelo Melo, and picked up Robby Ginepri and Liezel Huber. Team co-owner and tennis legend Billie Jean King commented on the moves in a press release from the team, showing that even those in the professional team tennis world aren't immune to generic sports quotes:
“We were pleased with the season we had last year and want to keep on building from the success we had with Taylor Townsend, Marcelo Melo and Liezel Huber by bringing them back to play for the Freedoms again this season and we look forward to welcoming Robby Ginepri, who will bring great depth to our lineup,.”
Mylan WTT is a professional tennis league that includes both genders, as each team includes a men's pair and a woman's pair. Matches consist of five sets: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.
The Freedoms finished with 9 wins and 5 losses last season, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since 2007. They were eliminated, and the Kastles won their fourth straight league title.
