USA Tour 2011 #5

After the highs and lows of the ATP tournament in Newport Island, Rhode Island, Greg received a great surprise and boost from Octagon, his Management Group, who had organised for him to compete as a substitute for the New York Sportimes team in the World Team Tennis (WTT) league. WTT is a 35 year-old team tennis event devised and run by the tennis legend Billie-Jean King and comprises 9 teams in two conferences who play each other in a team format over a period of weeks during the year, culminating in a Final event. It is a raucus college style event, played under lights at night to a special format with a different scoring system, and features both ex-players and current players, males and females.

Greg travelled to New York on Wednesday to join his team, the New York Sportimes, which features both
John McEnroe and Martini Hingis, and play that evening against the Boston Lobsters.

Greg first partnered American Jesse Witten in the Men's doubles against Eric Butorac and ex-ATP player Jan-Michael Gambill, winning a close match 5-3.

Martina Hingi

After the Women's singles (Hingis beat Vanderweghe 5-2) and the Men's singles (Witten losing 3-5 to Gambill), Greg partnered the great Martina Hingis in the mixed doubles. They played against the young USA star Coco Vanderweghe and Gambill, this time losing a close-match 3-5. It was left to Hingis and Abigail Spears to seal the team win with a 5-1 win in the Women's doubles, the Sportimes running out 21-16 winners over the Lobsters.

The next day the team travelled to Philadelphia to play their next fixture against the Philadelphia Freedoms.

Greg featured in the 3rd match, after wins by Witten in the Men's singles (5-2 over Brendan Evans) and Women's doubles by Hingis and Spears (5-2 over Lisa Raymond and young Beatrice Capra). 

Abigail Spears



He partnered Abigail Spears in the Mixed doubles and came from 2-4 down in their match, against fellow Aussie Nathan Healey and USA doubles legend Lisa Raymond, to win 3 games in a row to record a 5-4 win. After Hingis set up a team win by defeating Capra 5-0, Greg and partner Witten were required to win only 1 game in the deciding match to seal the team win. They went 2-0 up and then cruised, losing the match against Healey and Evans 5-2. The Sportimes team were 22-13 up against the Freedoms.

As the losing team had won the last match, under WTT rules, they had an opportunity to play overtime and attempt to tie-the team score, games being played until the losing team tied that score (of 2

2) or the winning team won a game, at which time play was finished. Greg and Witten snuffed that opportunity winning the first game, 1-0. Final score Sportimes 23-13 winners over the Freedoms.

Greg said it was tremendous fun. He really enjoyed the team camraderie and the relaxed yet competitive atmosphere. The players worked as a team and even went to dinner together. He was chuffed to be invited by the team Manager to play further events, where his tournament schedule permitted, in the ensuing weeks, which will qualify him to play for the team in the future and avoid having to be drafted, perhaps into other teams, which is the normal course of player entry to WTT.

On Friday Greg departed the team and travelled to Granby in Canada for his next tournament, a $35k Challenger event.