1974 World Team Tennis season


The 1974 World Team Tennis season was the inaugural season of the top professional team tennis league in the United States. The Denver Racquets defeated the Philadelphia Freedoms in the WTT Finals to win the league's first championship.

Competition format

The 1974 World Team Tennis season included 16 teams split into two divisions. The Eastern Division was further split into two sections which each had four teams. The Western Division was also split into two sections which also had four teams each. Each team played a 44-match regular-season schedule with 22 home and 22 away matches. The section champions and the two teams in each division with the best records among non section champions qualified for the division championship semifinals. The team with the best record among playoff qualifiers from the division played the team with the fourth best record in the semifinals. The teams with the second and third best records played each other in the semifinals. Teams were not given preference in seeding based on being champions of their section. The semifinal winners met the other semifinals winners from their own division to determine the division champions. The division champions met in the World Team Tennis Final.
At the start of the season, each match comprised two sets of men's singles, two sets of women's singles and two sets of mixed doubles. No men's doubles or women's doubles were played. The mixed doubles sets were played as the third and sixth sets. The coach of the home team decided whether to play men's or women's singles first and fourth or second and fifth. WTT changed the match format on May 18, 1974, to one set each of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles, because of concern that the matches were taking too long. The order of play was women's doubles first, men's doubles third and mixed doubles fifth. The coach of the home team decided whether men's or women's singles would be played second or fourth. Games were decided by the first player or doubles team to reach four points with no-ad scoring. Each set ended when one team had won either six or seven games and had an advantage over its opponent of at least two games. Sets that were tied 6–6 were decided by a tiebreaker. Set tiebreaker games were nine total points with the first player or doubles team to reach five the winner. An advantage of only one point was needed to win a tiebreaker game. Matches could end when one team built an insurmountable lead. For example, if a team had a 24–17 lead after four sets, the fifth set would not be played. If a team had a 22–19 lead after four sets, the match could end if the leading team won four games in the fifth set, since it would be impossible for the trailing team to make up the three-game deficit that existed when the set started. If the match was tied at the end of five sets, a super tiebreaker game was played between the mixed doubles teams using the same format as the set tiebreaker games. Teams often agreed to play dead sets even if the outcome of the match had already been decided or to play sets to completion when the outcome of the match was decided within that set.
Playoff matchups in the division semifinals and division championship series were played in two legs with each team hosting one match and the cumulative score determining the winner. The higher seed had the choice to host either the first or the second match. Should the cumulative score be tied after the conclusion of the second match, a series tiebreaker game was played to determine the series winner. The WTT Finals were a best-of-three series. The lower seed hosted the first match. The higher seed hosted the second match and the third, if necessary.

Charter franchises and relocation

On May 22, 1973, WTT announced the formation of the league with the following 16 franchises:
TeamFounder
BostonRaymond Ciccolo
ChicagoJordon H. Kaiser, Walter Kaiser
CincinnatiBill DeWitt, Jr., Brian Heekin
DenverBud Fischer, Frank Goldberg, Ben Press
DetroitSeymour Brode, Marshall Greenspan
HoustonE.Z. Jones, Betty Jones
Los AngelesDennis Murphy, Fred Barman, Jerry Fine, Jerry Buss
MinnesotaLee Meade, Len Vannelli, John Finley
New YorkJerry Saperstein
PhiladelphiaDick Butera, Ken Butera
PhoenixGary Davidson
Pittsburgh TrianglesJohn H. Hillman, III, William Sutton, Chuck Reichblum
St. LouisTed Cohen, Butch Buchholz
San DiegoDr. Leonard Bloom
San FranciscoLarry King, Cathie Anderson
BuffaloJohn F. Bassett, John C. Eaton, III

As shown in the above table, the Pittsburgh Triangles had a team name from the time the franchise was chartered.
On May 30, 1973, the San Diego franchise announced that it had adopted the name San Diego Swingers.
Before the WTT inaugural draft on August 3, 1973, the St. Louis franchise had relocated and was referred to as the Miami franchise at the draft.
Also before the draft, the Cincinnati franchise had been sold to Joseph Zingale and relocated to Cleveland.
Finally, by the time the inaugural draft took place, the San Francisco franchise had adopted the name the Golden Gate Otters
and was referred to as the Golden Gate franchise during the draft.
On August 21, 1973, the New York franchise announced it had adopted the name New York Sets.
By September 1973, the Los Angeles franchise had been named the Los Angeles Strings.
Before the start of the 1974 season, the Phoenix franchise was sold to Howard Fine, Gerald Klauber, Joseph Rivkin and Robert E. Bradley, Jr. who moved it to Baltimore.
Also before the start of the 1974 season, the San Diego Swingers were sold to Don Kelleher who moved them to Honolulu.
Finally, before the start of the 1974 season, the Golden Gate Otters decided to simply call the team the Golden Gaters in dealings with the public. Since it would have been absurd to call the team the Golden Gate Golden Gaters, and the league used a location to identify all its teams, WTT reverted to using San Francisco, the location for which the original charter was issued, when referring to the team. They were listed in official WTT standings as the San Francisco Golden Gaters.
The remaining charter franchises adopted names before the start of the 1974 season. The team identification and naming history of the 16 charter franchises from the founding of WTT to the start of the inaugural season is as follows:
WTT conducted a lottery to determine the order of selection for its inaugural draft held on August 3, 1973. The selection order determined as a result of the lottery was used for odd-numbered rounds, and it was reversed for even-numbered rounds. Each team was entitled to select 20 players. Teams that could sign players to contracts before the draft had to identify these players as preferential choices and use their earliest picks on the players signed. The players selected in the first 10 rounds of the draft are shown in the tables below.
;First round
Player chosen
1MiamiChris Evert
2BostonKerry Melville
3San Diego SwingersRod Laver
4PhoenixJimmy Connors
5Pittsburgh TrianglesKen Rosewall
6DetroitRosemary Casals
7HoustonJohn Newcombe
8Golden Gate OttersMargaret Court
9Los AngelesJohn Alexander
10New YorkRoy Emerson
11MinnesotaLinda Tuero
12PhiladelphiaBillie Jean King
13ClevelandBjörn Borg
14ChicagoMarty Riessen
15TorontoTom Okker
16DenverTony Roche

;Second round
Player chosen
1DenverFrançoise Dürr
2TorontoMarita Redondo
3ChicagoJulie Heldman
4ClevelandNancy Gunter
5PhiladelphiaFred Stolle
6MinnesotaOwen Davidson
7New YorkPam Teeguarden
8Los AngelesValerie Ziegenfuss
9Golden Gate OttersFrew McMillan
10HoustonDick Stockton
11DetroitBrian Gottfried
12Pittsburgh TrianglesEvonne Goolagong
13PhoenixBetty Stöve
14San Diego SwingersKaren Hantze Susman
15BostonNikola Pilić
16MiamiRoscoe Tanner

;Third round
Player chosen
1MiamiFrank Froehling
2BostonRoger Taylor
3San Diego SwingersWendy Overton
4PhoenixJanet Newberry
5Pittsburgh TrianglesHarold Solomon
6DetroitKerry Harris
7HoustonKaren Krantzcke
8Golden Gate OttersDennis Ralston
9Los AngelesJulie Anthony
10New YorkSandy Mayer
11MinnesotaStan Smith
12PhiladelphiaBrian Fairlie
13ClevelandRaymond Moore
14ChicagoBob Lutz
15TorontoPierre Barthès
16DenverErik van Dillen

;Fourth round
Player chosen
1DenverKris Kemmer Shaw
2TorontoLesley Hunt
3ChicagoJudy Tegart Dalton
4ClevelandClark and Carole Graebner
5PhiladelphiaCliff Drysdale
6MinnesotaPat Walkden-Pretorius
7New YorkCliff Richey
8Los AngelesRoss Case
9Golden Gate OttersTom Gorman
10HoustonLesley Turner Bowrey
11DetroitPhil Dent
12Pittsburgh TrianglesVitas Gerulaitis
13PhoenixBob Carmichael
14San Diego SwingersIlie Năstase
15BostonSharon Walsh
16MiamiMarcie Louie

;Fifth round
Player chosen
1MiamiAdriano Panatta
2BostonPaul Gerken
3San Diego SwingersJan Kodeš
4PhoenixBarry Phillips-Moore
5Pittsburgh TrianglesLaura duPont
6DetroitVirginia Wade
7HoustonHelen Gourlay
8Golden Gate OttersAnn Kiyomura
9Los AngelesVijay Amritraj
10New YorkArthur Ashe
11MinnesotaBob Hewitt
12PhiladelphiaLaura Rossouw
13ClevelandPeaches Bartkowicz
14ChicagoRay Ruffels
15TorontoKarl Meiler
16DenverAndrew Pattison

;Sixth round
Player chosen
1DenverColin Dibley
2TorontoRaúl Ramírez
3ChicagoJanet Young
4ClevelandPancho Gonzales
5PhiladelphiaTory Fretz
6MinnesotaBrenda Kirk
7New YorkBarbara Downs
8Los AngelesKathy Kuykendall
9Golden Gate OttersJürgen Fassbender
10HoustonBill Bowrey
11DetroitAllan Stone
12Pittsburgh TrianglesMona Schallau
13PhoenixJanice Metcalf
14San Diego SwingersAlex Metreveli
15BostonJeanne Evert
16MiamiPatrice Dominguez

;Seventh round
Player chosen
1MiamiPatti Hogan
2BostonMike Estep
3San Diego SwingersMaria Bueno
4PhoenixJoyce Williams
5Pittsburgh TrianglesJeff Borowiak
6DetroitMary-Ann Beattie
7HoustonCeci Martinez
8Golden Gate OttersJim McManus
9Los AngelesGeoff Masters
10New YorkKazuko Sawamatsu
11MinnesotaPatrick Proisy
12PhiladelphiaLaurie Fleming
13ClevelandBill Lloyd
14ChicagoBilly Martin
15TorontoHelga Masthoff
16DenverAlex Olmedo

;Eighth round
Player chosen
1DenverStephanie Johnson
2TorontoLaurie Tenney
3ChicagoMarie Neumanová
4ClevelandOnny Parun
5PhiladelphiaBuster Mottram
6MinnesotaCorrado Barazzutti
7New YorkHaroon Rahim
8Los AngelesKathy May
9Golden Gate OttersIlana Kloss
10HoustonBob McKinley
11DetroitCorinne Molesworth
12Pittsburgh TrianglesKathy Blake
13PhoenixDick Crealy
14San Diego SwingersRoy Barth
15BostonIsmail El Shafei
16MiamiMark Cox

;Ninth round
Player chosen
1MiamiOlga Morozova
2BostonPatricia Bostrom
3San Diego SwingersAnn Haydon-Jones
4PhoenixLost draft choice
5Pittsburgh TrianglesPat DuPré
6DetroitJaime Fillol
7HoustonRay Keldie
8Golden Gate OttersSusan Mehmedbasich
9Los AngelesLeif Johansson
10New YorkGene Scott
11MinnesotaNathalie Fuchs
12PhiladelphiaDianne Fromholtz
13ClevelandKatja Ebbinghaus
14ChicagoBobby Riggs
15TorontoGuillermo Vilas
16DenverPam Austin

;Tenth round
Player chosen
1DenverJeff Austin
2TorontoMike Belkin
3ChicagoAndrés Gimeno
4ClevelandMal Anderson
5PhiladelphiaJohn Paish
6MinnesotaSue Stap
7New YorkManuel Santana
8Los AngelesJane Albert Willens
9Golden Gate OttersPancho Segura
10HoustonDaryl Gralka
11DetroitNancy Ornstein
12Pittsburgh TrianglesJane Stratton
13PhoenixJoaquín Loyo Mayo
14San Diego SwingersGlynis Coles
15BostonIon Țiriac
16MiamiNeale Fraser

Notes:

Standings and attendance

Reference:
Total attendance during the season was 833,966, for an average of 2,369 over 352 playing dates.

Playoff bracket

Reference:

Playoff match results

Reference:

Western Division semifinals

Eastern Division Championship

Western Division Championship

WTT Finals

Of the total of 14 playoff matches, home teams won only 6 and lost 8. The higher seeds had 3 wins and 4 losses in their 7 home matches. The higher seeds won 5 of the 7 series.

Individual statistical leaders

The table below shows the individual players and doubles teams who had the best winning percentages in each of the five events in WTT.
EventPlayerTeam
Men's singlesJimmy ConnorsBaltimore Banners
Women's singlesBillie Jean KingPhiladelphia Freedoms
Men's doublesJohn Newcombe and Dick StocktonHouston E-Z Riders
Women's doublesBillie Jean King and Julie AnthonyPhiladelphia Freedoms
Mixed doublesKerry Harris and Allan StoneDetroit Loves

Individual honors

Reference:
AwardRecipientTeam
Most Valuable PlayerBillie Jean KingPhiladelphia Freedoms
Coach of the YearTony RocheDenver Racquets
Playoffs Most Valuable PlayerAndrew PattisonDenver Racquets