TeamTennis Banks On Connors, Navratilova

TeamTennis turns a corner this week, and two thirtysomething left-handers shall lead it.

Entering a second decade, TeamTennis will feature two aging superstars, 38-year-old Jimmy Connors and 34-year-old Martina Navratilova, whose sole role is to provide instant notoriety to this peculiar brand of tag-team, co-ed tennis with a history of providing great entertainment value while falling short on offering marquee names.

Connors has a two-year deal to play for the Los Angeles Strings, who won their second TeamTennis title last season, and Navratilova is signed to play five years with one of the league’s two new teams, the Atlanta Thunder. Both Connors and Navratilova are receiving guarantees to play, new ground for TeamTennis, which has spread around the bill for the pair to all 11 teams and the league itself.

There could be another star search on the horizon. Ilana Kloss, TeamTennis vice president, said league expansion to include a third division is an option.

“We’re not going to add stars and have teams lose money,” Kloss said. “The reason (signing Connors and Navratilova) works is because everybody shares in the expense and it’s financially feasible.

“If we take in five or six more teams, we will definitely need another star player. We know that for TeamTennis to become a major league, we’d have to get a few more name players.”

In the board room, two new star players have replaced Billie Jean King, who founded the concept of TeamTennis with former husband Larry King in 1962 and has been busily developing the sport into a cult favorite under its various names (World Team Tennis, U.S. Team Tennis, Domino’s Pizza Team Tennis) ever since.

Last month, King sold controlling interest in TeamTennis to Ehud Houminer and Fredric Newman, stepping aside to become sort of an official cheerleader. Houminer was formerly president and chief executive officer of Philip Morris USA, and Newman was formerly that company’s vice president and general counsel. Newman said he and Houminer are taking over a sports vehicle with great potential.

“TeamTennis appears to us to have a chance of becoming the next great major league pro sport,” said Newman, who added that expansion by the addition of at least one team is probable for 1992.

There are 44 players on 11 TeamTennis teams competing in a monthlong season for total prize money of $550,000--small by comparison to a tournament such as Wimbledon, which offers its men’s singles champion $408,000. The low prize money is considered a major reason top players do not take part in the league.

However, Newman said TeamTennis plans to expand its prize money base and thereby attract more name players. “With the exception of Jimmy and Martina, who have guarantees, we won’t be paying guarantees, but if we had $1 million of prize money, I think you would see a lot of players who weren’t interested this year be interested next year. But our intention is not to have a small group of superstars.”

Newman sees a 12-team or possibly 16-team league next season and chances for a 24-team league that would include several international cities by 1994.

TeamTennis: Keeping Score

TeamTennis, which begins its 11th season Wednesday with a record 11 teams, has an unconventional scoring system.

Each team consists of two men and two women, and each match consists of five sets--men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. Singles matches are the second and fourth matches; doubles are first, third and fifth.

In each game, the player (or doubles team) who gets four points wins. If a set is tied at five games each, there is a 13-point tiebreaker to determine the winner.

Unlike conventional scoring, in which the winner is determined by sets, TeamTennis standings are based on games won and lost. It is possible for a team to lose more sets than it wins but still emerge with more victories.

To ensure that the outcome is still in doubt when the fifth set is played, regardless of how one-sided the match has been to that point, the team that is behind in cumulative games gets a chance to catch up. If it wins that fifth set, the match goes into overtime.

Overtime lasts as long as the trailing team continues to win games. Once the team that is ahead wins a game, the match is over. But if the trailing team wins enough games to tie the other team in games won, the match is thrown into what is called a super tiebreaker. That is a standard 13-point tiebreaker that will determine the final outcome.

THE TEAMS

West Division Los Angeles Strings

Newport Beach Dukes

Sacramento Capitals

San Antonio Racquets

Wichita Advantage

East Division Atlanta Thunder

Charlotte Heat

Miami Breakers

New Jersey Stars

Raleigh Edge

Wellington (Fla.) Aces