The 2016 World TeamTennis season was the 41st season of the top professional team tennis league in the United States. Pursuant to a sponsorship agreement with Mylan N.V., the official name of the league was Mylan World TeamTennis in 2016.
The San Diego Aviators defeated the Orange County Breakers, 25–14 in extended play, in the WTT Finals to win the King Trophy as WTT champions.
Competition format The 2016 World TeamTennis season included six teams. Unlike previous seasons, the teams were not split into two conferences. Each team played a 12-match regular-season schedule with six home and six away matches. The top two teams in the regular season qualified for the World TeamTennis Final at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City. The higher seed was treated as the "home" team in the WTT Final and had the right to determine order of play. The winner of the WTT Final was awarded the King Trophy.
Franchise movement, contraction and expansion On December 14, 2015, the Austin Aces announced that the team would move back to Orange County, California for the 2016 season and be renamed the Orange County Breakers. On January 27, 2016, the Breakers announced that they would play their home matches at Breakers Stadium at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.
In December 2015, Randy Peters Catering of Citrus Heights, California sued the California Dream and its three owners in Sacramento County Superior Court demanding US$19,249 for its unpaid bills as the team's food concessionaire. Also in December 2015, one of the Dream's minority owners, Bob Kaliski, told The Sacramento Bee that he had personally lost US$175,000 investing in the team and that majority owner Jeff Launius had told him the Dream owed its vendors US$192,000 at the end of the season. Kaliski said, "I don't know if the team is going to be back or not. I know I'm not going to be back. I don't know about the rest of the team." WTT said that the Dream had until the end of December to meet its financial commitments to the league in order to secure its spot for 2016. On January 13, 2016, WTT announced that the Dream franchise had been terminated due to noncompliance with the team's obligations to the league.
On February 17, 2016, WTT announced that the Boston Lobsters had folded. The team had been owned and operated by the league during the 2015 season after the retirement of its former owner Bahar Uttam, who walked away from it. WTT had been unable to find a new owner for the franchise. In a press release, WTT commissioner Ilana Kloss said, "We spent more than a year seeking a local owner or ownership group, but unfortunately we were not able to find the right fit." She went on to say that WTT was leaving the door open for a return to Boston if the right ownership could be found. Keith Callahan, general manager of the Manchester Athletic Club said that the club had been approached by WTT to take over ownership of the team but had turned it down. "We just made a decision not to do that," he said. "It would have taken an enormous amount of resources to take on an operation like that, and we made a decision to commit those resources to improving the business and to making improvements for our members to make the operation better for them and for the community." WTT's asking price for the Lobsters was US$1 million.
Concurrent with the announcement of the folding of the Lobsters, WTT announced an expansion team for New York City named the New York Empire that began play in 2016. The team played its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York.
Draft WTT conducted its 2016 draft on March 25, in Key Biscayne, Florida. The order in which teams selected was based on the results the teams achieved in 2015, with weaker teams selecting earlier and stronger teams selecting later. The draft order is ordinarily determined as follows: Nonplayoff teams ranked from worst regular-season record to best Conference championship loser with the worse record of the two Conference championship loser with the better record of the two WTT Final loser WTT champion Expansion teams select in the middle of each round. If there is an even number of teams, an expansion team will select in the middle position that is closest to the first pick. There were three nonplayoff teams in 2015, and ranked from worst record to best record, they were Springfield Lasers San Diego Aviators Boston Lobsters However, the Lobsters folded prior to the draft. Therefore, the Lasers and Aviators were the only two nonplayoff teams and assigned the preliminary first and second positions. The Philadelphia Freedoms lost the 2015 Eastern Conference Championship Match and had a worse record than the California Dream, which lost the Western Conference Championship Match. Therefore, the Freedoms were assigned the preliminary third position. Since the Dream franchise was terminated, it was not assigned a draft position. The Orange County Breakers, playing in 2015, as the Austin Aces, lost the WTT Final and were assigned the preliminary fourth draft position. The WTT Champion Washington Kastles were assigned the preliminary fifth draft position. The expansion New York Empire was assigned the third draft position by rule, since there was an even number of teams, and this is the middle position closest to the first position. This resulted in the Freedoms, Breakers and Kastles all moving down one position from their preliminary positions. Each team could protect certain players from its 2015 roster. Marquee players or doubles teams and wildcard players could be protected if they appeared in a match for the team in 2015. Exempt, roster and substitute players who appeared in at least three matches for the team in 2015, could also be protected. Teams could also protect players who qualified for protection based on match appearances in 2014, but were unable to play in 2015, due to injury. Teams holding the right to protect players could trade those rights before or during the draft. If a team chooses a roster-exempt player, one who is not required to be a full-time member of the team, it is possible for a team to make four selections in the roster player portion of the draft and not have two male and two female full-time players. In such cases, these teams are permitted to make selections in additional rounds of the roster player draft until they have a complete roster. Teams that have two male and two female full-time players may select roster-exempt players in rounds past the fourth round. The selections made are shown in the tables below.
Marquee draft – first round Player chosen Notes 1 Springfield Lasers John Isner Y 2 San Diego Aviators James Blake N Designated 3 New York Empire Andy Roddick Y 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Caroline Wozniacki N 5 Washington Kastles Bob and Mike Bryan N Doubles team 6 Washington Kastles Martina Hingis Y Marquee draft – second round Player chosen Notes 1 Springfield Lasers Pass – 2 San Diego Aviators Pass – 3 New York Empire Pass – 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Pass – 5 Orange County Breakers Pass – 6 Washington Kastles Mardy Fish N Roster draft – first round Player chosen Notes 1 New York Empire Christina McHale N 2 San Diego Aviators Shelby Rogers N 3 Springfield Lasers Daniel Nestor N 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Lukáš Lacko N 5 Orange County Breakers Nicole Gibbs Y 6 Washington Kastles Sam Querrey Y Exempt Roster draft – second round Player chosen Notes 1 Springfield Lasers Benjamin Becker N 2 San Diego Aviators Raven Klaasen Y 3 New York Empire Guido Pella N 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Daria Kasatkina N 5 Orange County Breakers Alla Kudryavtseva Y 6 Washington Kastles Leander Paes Y Exempt Roster draft – third round Player chosen Notes 1 Springfield Lasers Daria Gavrilova N 2 San Diego Aviators Daniel Evans N 3 Springfield Lasers Michaëlla Krajicek N 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Fabrice Martin N 5 Orange County Breakers Scott Lipsky N 6 Washington Kastles Madison Brengle Y Roster draft – fourth round Player chosen Notes 1 New York Empire María Irigoyen N 2 San Diego Aviators Darija Jurak Y 3 New York Empire Oliver Marach N 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Naomi Broady N 5 Orange County Breakers Dennis Novikov N 6 Washington Kastles Anastasia Rodionova Y Roster draft – fifth round Player chosen Notes 1 Springfield Lasers Pass – 2 San Diego Aviators Pass – 3 New York Empire Pass – 4 Philadelphia Freedoms Donald Young N Exempt 5 Orange County Breakers Pass – 6 Washington Kastles Pass – Notes:
Event chronology Off-season December 14, 2015: The Austin Aces announced that the team would move back to Orange County, California for the 2016 season and be renamed the Orange County Breakers. January 13, 2016: WTT announced that the California Dream franchise had been terminated due to noncompliance with the team's obligations to the league. February 17, 2016: WTT announced that the Boston Lobsters had folded, because the league had been unable to find a new owner for the franchise. February 17, 2016: WTT announced an expansion team for New York City to be named the New York Empire that will begin play in 2016. The team announced it would play its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York. March 25, 2016: WTT conducted its 2016 player draft.
Regular season July 31, 2016: The New York Empire made its debut with a home loss to the Washington Kastles, 22–15. August 4, 2016: The New York Empire secured the first win in franchise history, when it defeated the Springfield Lasers, 19–15, at Forest Hills Stadium. August 10, 2016: With a record of 2 wins and 7 losses, the New York Empire was eliminated from postseason contention when it lost to the Philadelphia Freedoms, 17–16, in a super tiebreaker (7–3). August 10, 2016: With a record of 2 wins and 7 losses, the Springfield Lasers were eliminated from postseason contention when they lost to the Orange County Breakers, 22–19, in extended play. It is the second consecutive season the Lasers have missed the postseason. August 11, 2016: With a record of 8 wins and 2 losses, the Orange County Breakers clinched a berth in the WTT Finals for the second consecutive season when they defeated the New York Empire, 19–17.