Five years ago, the Philadelphia Freedoms celebrated their return to WorldTeamTennis with an all-star lineup that boasted tennis legend Jimmy Connors and Wayne native Lisa Raymond.
The Freedoms, one of the league's original teams in 1974, entertained the Cabrini College crowds in 2001 en route to a WTT championship.
This summer at Cabrini College, Raymond, an Academy of Notre Dame graduate (Class of 1991) and Wayne native, will be looking to help the Freedoms bag another WTT title.
The Philadelphia squad feels good about their chances.
"We're very serious about making a run for the King Trophy this summer, and we have the lineup to do it," said Freedoms general manager Lisa Lauck.
Raymond is charged up for the season, according to league co-founder and tennis legend Billie Jean King, who was at Cabrini last week for the Freedoms' annual media luncheon.
"Lisa was totally stoked," said King. "She was calling every day, helping with the draft and telling us who to pick. She was crazed. This team is going to be balanced, exciting and fun to watch, but human beings are unpredictable - you never know."
"This team was built to win," said league vice-president Jeff Harrison. "Last year, we had a couple of players [Josh Eagle, Elena Tatarkova] who were winding down their careers; but this year, the players who are replacing them, Daniel Nestor and Rennae Stubbs, are in the prime of their careers."
Last year, the Freedoms posted a 7-7 record, tied with Hartford and Boston. Philadelphia just missed the WTT playoffs last year, as the Lobsters won the playoff tiebreaker.
Raymond, who played for the Freedoms in 2005, joins a loaded Philadelphia lineup that includes marquee player Venus Williams, Nestor, Stubbs, Freddy Neimeyer and Casey Dellacqua.
Raymond, one of the world's top-ranked doubles player, was protected by the Freedoms in the WorldTeamTennis Pro League Draft March 28 in Miami, and will be playing her sixth season of WorldTeamTennis.
The Wayne native holds more than 50 Sony Ericcson WTA tour doubles titles and is a four-time Grand Slam champion in both women's doubles (2000 Australian Open, 2001 Wimbledon, 2001 U.S. Open [with Stubbs] and 2005 U.S. Open) and mixed doubles (1996 U.S. Open, 2002 U.S. Open, 1999 Wimbledon and 2003 French Open).
Williams, one of the world's top-ranked players, captured Wimbledon last year, her fifth Grand Slam singles title (also won at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2000 and 2001). She also has six Grand Slam doubles titles.
Williams will play one home match for the Freedoms - July 21 against the Delaware Smash.
Stubbs, who paired with Raymond to form a top-ranked doubles team, also was part of the Freedoms' 2001 championship squad. An Australian Olympic and Fed Cup teammate, she has more than 50 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles, four Grand Slam women's doubles titles and two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.
The 33-year-old Nestor is an Olympic gold medalist and Davis Cup teammate for Canada. The lefthander has a fine record in doubles play, and it was said that Raymond really wanted him on the team.
Neimeyer, 30, is Nestor's teammate for the Canadian Olympic team and is undefeated with Nestor on the Davis Cup team in men's doubles.
Dellacqua is a 21-year-old Australian who holds five ITF Futures singles titles and 10 ITF Futures doubles titles.
The Freedoms start their season on the road July 6 in Houston. Their first home match is July 7 against the Delaware Smash. All of the Freedoms' home games will be at Cabrini College.
The Freedoms' remaining schedule is as follows: July 10, New York Sportimes; July 11, at Boston Lobsters; July 12, at New York Buzz; July 14, at Delaware Smash; July 15, Boston Lobsters; July 18, Newport Beach Breakers; July 19, at New York Buzz; July 21, Delaware Smash; July 22, at Houston Wranglers; July 24, St. Louis Aces; July 25, at Hartford FoxForce; July 26, Hartford FoxForce.
Pete Sampras will make his WTT debut when the Newport Beach Breakers come to Cabrini July 18. The match will be aired on Comcast Sportsnet.
For King, Sampras' participation has always been at the top of her wish list. Last year, King was asked in an interview who is the one player she always wanted to play World TeamTennis but hadn't been able to get. Her answer was Sampras.
"Pete promised me if he ever picked up a racket again, he would play for us," King said, "and he kept his word."
The Freedoms' coach is Craig Kardon, who coached the Atlanta Thunder (1992), the New Jersey Stars (1995) and the Delaware Smash (2002) to WTT titles. He worked with Raymond a decade ago at the Radnor Racquet Club.
Kardon said, "I like the change of pace in coaching WorldTeamTennis. On the tour, it's one-on-one, and your hands are tied during matches - you have to sit there. Making up doubles teams for WorldTeamTennis is like mixing up a good salad.
"For one month, I've got to get the players to mesh - getting them out for practice, putting someone else in doubles. There's a lot of give and take. Sometimes it takes a little bit of finagling, you have to get people to think about not what's best for them but for the team.
"We want the players to mingle, to give back to the fans - making that extra effort to be available after the match."
Last year, the Freedoms averaged 2,100 fans per match at Cabrini College, and Harrison noted that the Freedoms have had a five percent increase in attendance in each of the past several years: "The hope is to get a good enough buzz so we can expand and add more seating."
The league is holding a free tennis clinic open to the public at the Wayne Swim & Tennis Club May 11 at 6:30 p.m., featuring ATP pro Luke Jensen. Earlier that day, Jensen will lead the annual Kidcaster event at Bloomingdale's at the King of Prussia Mall at 4:30 p.m..
There will be a 5K race on the grounds of Cabrini College June 10 at 9 a.m., which will include sponsors and season ticket holders, and will benefit Fox Chase Cancer Center.
King reminded the crowd at Cabrini last week that World TeamTennis was the first tennis league to broadcast music during matches, hit balls into the stands, put names on the backs of jerseys, use instant replay and give out free rackets.
This year, the league is introducing electronic scoreboards and will resurrect the colored courts, which were the league's calling card in the 1970s.
King wants to get youngsters interested in tennis, and pointed out said one in three children are at risk for Type 2 diabetes, a staggering statistic, which is the direct result of inactivity. She said the reason most kids aren't interested in sports these days is because they aren't having fun, and added, "We keep trying to stretch the envelope and make [WorldTeamTennis] fun."
World TeamTennis, which has been in existence for 31 seasons, is the only sanctioned professional tennis league that promotes coed team play. In recent months, organizations like Campus Tennis and the USTA, have been adding elements from the league.
"World TeamTennis is a great format," King said. "I love the gender equity and the way it's so kid-friendly. What we need to do is have a huge grass-roots event and make an impact with the WTA and Middle States. It would be the biggest grass-roots tournament ever."
King believes that kind of event is a legitimate possibility, and cites Philadelphia as a possible venue. Harrison added that it could happen as soon as next year.
Merrill Lynch and Wilmington Trust have been added as new sponsors, and Fox Chase Cancer Center was recently named the team's official charity. Every time an ace is hit, the Freedoms will donate $100 to Fox Chase.
Sampras and Williams will also be auctioning off their rackets after matches and 2,500 free rackets will be distributed to fans as they pass through the gates.
Games will be broadcast on Comcast and ESPN, not only in the United States, but also in Africa, England and Australia.

Wimbledon remains the only Grand Slam tournament that pays the men's champion more than the women's winner — and that's not likely to change.

The All England Club announced Tuesday that the men's winner this year will receive $1.170 million and the women's champion will get $1.117 million. That's a 4 percent increase for both in British currency.

The French Open announced earlier this month that it would pay the men's and women's champions the same amount for the first time, although the overall prize fund is bigger for the men. The two other Grand Slam tournaments - the Australian and U.S. Opens - have paid equal prize money for years.

"This issue is one of a judgment on fairness," All England Club chairman Tim Phillips said. "We believe that what we do at the moment is actually fair to the men as well as to the women."

"There is a lot of data around and in the end, you have to make a judgment and our judgment is made on the marketplace and it's based on what we believe to be fair," he added.

The WTA Tour, which has lobbied for equal pay for years, expressed disappointment that Wimbledon "continues to promote inequality in pay across the board between men and women."

"In the 21st century, it is morally indefensible that women competitors in a Grand Slam tournament should be receiving considerably less prize money than their male counterparts," WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott said in a statement.

He accused Wimbledon of taking a "Victorian era view" on pay.

"It's surprising that Wimbledon, which has been such a leader in our sport, has chosen to lag behind the other Grand Slams on the issue of equality," Scott said. "Wimbledon represents so much that is good about modern British society, but inequality should not be part of the Wimbledon brand."

Overall, prize money for the June 26-July 9 championships will be $18.549 million, a 2.9 percent increase over last year's total.

Phillips said because top men rarely play in Grand Slam doubles events, they earn less overall than women. In addition, the men play best-of-five set matches, while the women play best-of-three.

"It just doesn't seem right to us that the lady players could play in three events and could take away significantly more than the men's champion who battles away through these best-of-five matches," Phillips said. "We don't see it as an equal rights issue."

With only $53,600 difference of prize money between the men's and women's winners, Phillips said the issue was one of principle.

"Obviously it's something that could be done and we could respond to the pressure that we come under by doing something that we fundamentally don't think would be fair on the men," he said. "We also would point that the top 10 ladies last year earned more from Wimbledon that the top 10 men did."

Phillips said he didn't think it would be beneficial for women to play best-of-five sets in a bid for full equality.

"Physically they could yes," he said. "Our argument does go wider. One of the difficulties we have in defending our position is that we are talking effectively to the top women players this morning. There is no desire on our part to say anything derogatory about the top women players."

Phillips said the WTA Tour paid 63 percent less to players in an average week than the ATP Masters Series did.

"Whereas we're 87 percent," Phillips said. "So it seems to me we are much closer to equal prize money than they are on the rest of the tour."

Wimbledon also said Tuesday that it won't be using Hawk-Eye computer technology to review disputed line calls.

"The club has held discussions with the manufacturers and the International Tennis Federation and has decided that as suitable testing has not yet been carried out by them on grass, the system will not be used for line-calling this year," said Ian Ritchie, All England Club chief executive.

Testing, however, will be carried out before and after matches at this year's tournament.

Last month, the ATP and WTA tours decided to use Hawk-Eye in selected tournaments. This year's U.S. Open will be the first Grand Slam event to review disputed calls using Hawk-Eye.

Eager to punctuate his afternoon with an exclamation point, Roger Federer pounced on a second serve, whacking a backhand return that kissed the tape and landed softly at the base of net on the far side of the court. With that, Federer won the Nasdaq-100 Open.

"I guess I had to work extremely hard to get that lucky over the years," he said. "Obviously it's funny when it happens on match point for a tournament victory."

Federer was a little lucky when it counted most Sunday, but he was also very good. He came from behind in three consecutive tiebreakers to claim the Key Biscayne title for the second year in a row, beating Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6).

"The bigger points, he played better," Ljubicic said. "He played more relaxed and more confident than I was. When you play a tiebreaker against him, he rarely misses."

The top-ranked Federer won three tiebreakers in a match for the first time to remain unbeaten since August 2004 in the United States, where he has won 48 consecutive matches and the past seven tournaments he has entered.

Federer improved to 28-1 overall this year, with the only loss to Rafael Nadal in Dubai.

"This is very nice, to have such a close match and come through it and show once again that I really belong to the No. 1 position and deserve all these trophies I win," Federer said.

Ljubicic, seeded sixth, settled for runner-up despite losing only 12 points on his first serve. He hit 21 aces, and during one stretch won 13 service points in a row.

But Federer won the pivotal points, such as when he faced set point in the final tiebreaker at 5-6. He hit a pair of service winners, then spun his final shot off the net cord. Federer walked to the net with a sheepish grin.

"Just another way to win a point," Ljubicic said, "so he did it."

Federer became the first man to win titles at Indian Wells and Key Biscayne back-to-back in consecutive years.

"I never thought I would do it again," he said. "I was extremely happy with the way I played. The first set gave me a little cushion, and Ivan was always running uphill."

Federer extended his record winning streak in the ATP Masters Series to 24 matches, and won his ninth Masters Series final in a row. Even against top players, Federer is remarkably dominant: He beat Ljubicic for the seventh straight time.

But the match was his toughest of the tournament, and the narrow margin made him a little testy. He yelled at himself and argued at length with a lineswoman about a call. When he challenged a ruling on his serve and lost, he appeared rattled and double-faulted on his next shot.

In his four matches on the stadium court, Federer was successful on only one of five instant-replay challenges. Overall, players overturned 53 of 161 rulings challenged (33 percent).

Federer has been one of the few players reluctant to embrace the technology, used by the professional tours for the first time at Key Biscayne.

"I still believe you have to give it time and see if it's really reliable," he said. "I'm happy it's in the past right now."

The first set alone took 59 minutes, the length of Federer's semifinal victory over David Ferrer, and he played for 80 minutes before earning a break-point chance against Ljubicic. The players then traded back-to-back breaks _ the first of the match _ for 4-all in the second set.

But in the tiebreakers, Federer was slightly better. He hit an ace to close out the first one, and won the final six points in the second tiebreaker.

In the third set, he rallied after losing his serve in the first game, breaking back for 3-all. He held serve to reach 6-6, then improved to 12-1 in tiebreakers this year.

"I never panic," Federer said. "I think that's the key in the end. You've got to believe in your game."

Federer received $533,350 for his fourth title this year. Ljubicic, a finalist in a U.S. event for the first time, earned $266,675.

"For 10 seconds after the match, you're mad because you were close," Ljubicic said. "But a week after, you're proud. I'm going to be proud of the way I played and the fact that I was close."

In 2000, Andy Roddick turned pro at the age of 17. Just 18 months later, he had already won two tournaments and was one of the top 50 ranked players. As of 2003, Andy Roddick had won five titles and was ranked among the top five tennis players in the world. The key to Andy's game is his monstrous serve. In the finals of a grass-court tournament in London in June 2003, Roddick tied a world record by unleashing a thunderbolt serve that reached 149 miles per hour! Andy reached the semi-finals of both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2003 and in September of that same year, Roddick won the US Open. It was his first Grand Slam title.

Saturday, Aug 26
Arthur Ashe Kids Day

Monday, Aug 28
Day: Men's/Women's 1st Round
Evening: Men's/Women's 1st Round

Tuesday, Aug 29
Day: Men's/Women's 1st Round
Evening: Men's/Women's 1st Round

Wednesday, Aug 30
Day: Men's 1st Round/Women's 2nd Round
Evening: Men's 2nd Round/Women's 2nd Round

Thursday, Aug 31
Day: Men's/Women's 2nd round
Evening: Men's/Women's 2nd Round

Friday, Sep 1
Day: Men's 2nd Round/Women's 3rd Round
Evening: Men's 2nd Round/Women's 3rd Round

Saturday, Sep 2
Day: Men's/Women's 3rd Round
Evening: Men's/Women's 3rd Round

Sunday, Sep 3
Day: Men's 3rd Round/Women's Round of 16
Evening: Men's 3rd Round/Women's Round of 16

Monday, Sep 4
Day: Men's/Women's Round of 16
Evening: Men's/Women's Round of 16

Tuesday, Sep 5
Day: Men's Round of 16
Evening: Women's Quarterfinal

Wednesday, Sep 6
Day: Men's and/or Women's Quarterfinal
Evening: Men's and/or Women's Quarterfinal

Thursday, Sep 7
Day: Men's Quarterfinal/Mixed Doubles Final
Evening: Men's Quarterfinal

Friday, Sep 8
Day: Men's Doubles Final/Women's Semifinals

Saturday, Sep 9
Day: Men's Semifinals
Evening: Women's Final/Pre-Match Ceremony

Sunday, Sep 10
Day: Women's Doubles Final/Men's Final

The USTA announced that the 2005 US Open set several records in attendance and website traffic and generated significant television ratings growth over last year:

Attendance:

• An all-time attendance record was set at 659,538 fans, breaking the previous record set in 2001, by over 20,000 fans. The US Open remains the highest attended annual event in sports.
  
• The daily total attendance record was set at 58,589 on Saturday, September 3, and again the following day with 58,817 on Sunday, September 4.

Television:

• The national overnight rating for the Men's Final on CBS Sports was 6.2, doubling the 2004 rating.
  
• Total viewership for the Saturday Night primetime Women's Final was up 28% vs. 2004.
  
• Viewership of Super Saturday (both men's semifinals and the women's final) on CBS Sports increased by 56% vs. 2004.
  
• Total ratings of the US Open on CBS Sports were up 18% vs. 2004.
  
• USA Network's total viewership for the key 18-49 demographic increased 24% vs. 2004. Total viewership on USA Network was up 8%.

Website:

• Traffic on USOpen.org, the official tournament website set an all-time record of 27.0 million visitors vs. 15.4 million last year, up 75%.
  
• The average visitor spent a record 81 minutes on the site.
  
• USOpen.org remains a top-five most-trafficked sports website.