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2015 World TeamTennis season

2015 World TeamTennis season
World TeamTennis 40th Season Logo.jpg
40th season logo
League World TeamTennis
Sport Team tennis
Duration July 12 – August 2, 2015
Number of matches Regular season: 49 (14 for each team)
Postseason: 3
Number of teams 7
TV partner(s) ESPN2
ESPN3
Tennis Channel
Altitude Sports and Entertainment
Comcast SportsNet affiliates
Mediacom Connections
MSG
World TeamTennis Player Draft
Top draft pick Canada Eugenie Bouchard
Picked by Boston Lobsters
Regular season
Top seed Austin Aces
Season MVP Russia Teymuraz Gabashvili (Male MVP) (Austin)
Spain Anabel Medina Garrigues (Female co-MVP) (California)
Australia Anastasia Rodionova (Female co-MVP) (Washington)
Eastern Conference
Season champions Washington Kastles
  Runners-up Philadelphia Freedoms
Western Conference
Season champions Austin Aces
  Runners-up California Dream
Conference Championships
Eastern Conference champions Washington Kastles
Western Conference champions Austin Aces
World TeamTennis Final
Venue Kastles Stadium at the Charles E. Smith Center
Champions Washington Kastles
  Runners-up Austin Aces
Finals MVP India Leander Paes (Washington)
World TeamTennis seasons

The 2015 World TeamTennis season was the 40th 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 2015. The Washington Kastles defeated the Austin Aces in the WTT Final to win their fifth consecutive King Trophy.

The 2015 World TeamTennis season included seven teams split into two conferences (Eastern and Western). The Eastern Conference had three teams, and the Western Conference had four teams. Each team played a 14-match regular-season schedule with seven home and seven away matches. The top two teams in each conference qualified for the conference championship matches hosted by the first-place finishers. The conference champions met in the World TeamTennis Final hosted in 2015, by the Eastern Conference champion. A Western Conference champion that is a higher seed than an Eastern Conference champion would be treated as the "home" team in the WTT Final and have the right to determine order of play. The winner of the WTT Final was awarded the King Trophy.

On February 23, 2015, WTT announced that a new ownership group had taken control of the Texas Wild and moved the team to Citrus Heights, California, renaming it the California Dream.

Unlike previous seasons in which WTT conducted its Marquee Player Draft and its Roster Player Draft on different dates about one month apart, the league conducted a single draft at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California on March 16, 2015. The order in which teams selected was based on the results the teams achieved in 2014, with weaker teams selecting earlier and stronger teams selecting later. The team with the worst regular-season record selected first in each round, and the remaining nonplayoff teams followed in order based on their records. After the nonplayoff teams chose, the conference championship loser with the worse record of the two selected and was followed by the other conference championship loser. The WTT runner up selected after the conference championship losers, and the WTT champion selected last. The draft position for the relocated California Dream franchise was based on the results achieved as the Texas Wild. Each team could protect certain players from its 2014 roster. Marquee players or doubles teams and wildcard players could be protected if they appeared in a match for the team in 2014. Exempt, roster and substitute players who appeared in at least three matches for the team in 2014, could also be protected. Teams could also protect players who qualified for protection based on match appearances in 2013, but were unable to play in 2014, due to injury. Teams holding the right to protect players could trade those rights before or during the draft. In another change from previous seasons, WTT eliminated its separate roster-exempt player draft. Instead, roster-exempt players were chosen in the roster player portion of the draft. Since roster-exempt players are not required to be full-time members of the team, the rule change makes it 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. The selections made are shown in the tables below.


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Wikipedia

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