At The Net with Stephen Amritraj, CEO of World Team Tennis
This winter, one of the most iconic and impactful sports leagues will make its return.
World Team Tennis (WTT) is back after a five-year hiatus, with three revised franchises competing this December across three major North American cities: Miami, Toronto, and New York. The new-look WTT will combine the league’s tradition while also reinvigorating itself for a new audience, creating an exciting dynamic for fans to enjoy these incredible athletes compete.
“The team concept is one that I’ve always loved,” said Stephen Amritraj, the CEO of WTT. “The idea of mixed gender team play with both genders contributing equally to the score was an incredible innovation when the league was first formed and was ahead of its time. I then saw these other emerging leagues in other sports, like the TGL or Unrivaled, and I said ‘why can’t we do this for tennis’.”
Amritraj took that idea and ran with it, consulting with a few close friends to develop a structure to give WTT a rebirth worthy of the league’s namesake. It became a passion project for Amritraj who combined his love for the sport of tennis with his business acumen, and the result of it will be seen this December.
Tennis, and WTT specifically, has always been an integral part of Amritraj’s life. His father and uncle were born in India but moved to the United States to play for the Los Angeles teams in the league back in the 1970s. Amritraj also has connections to Long Island and New York, as his late mother was a native of Copiague, and his father was an owner of the Amritraj Racquet and Health Spa in Bay Shore for many years.
Amritraj was born in Los Angeles, and after compiling a decorated junior tennis career he would go on to play at Duke University. It was during his college days that he developed a fondness for the team format of tennis. He played competitively on the pro tours before transitioning into coaching, and landed a role at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) where he oversaw college tennis.
“I then became the Chief Tennis Officer at UTR where I oversaw the elite tennis strategy there, and I remained there for a number of years,” Amritraj said.
So with his depth of knowledge of the tennis world, and his success as an executive in the business world, Amritraj set his sights on reincarnating the famed WTT. His wife, Alison Riske-Amritraj, competed on the WTA Tour for more than a decade, and played in the last iteration of WTT, and Amritraj discussed the idea with her as well as associates throughout the tennis world.
Two of the biggest changes that Amritraj wanted to usher in was a tweak to the scoring system, and the location on the calendar. In the past, every game of each set would count towards the end result, but this time around, there will be five sets played per match, two men’s singles, two women’s singles, and a mixed doubles supertiebreaker, with each set contributing to the final result.
“We’re changing the format to be very similar to college tennis,” Amritraj said of the conversations that were had after acquiring the World Team Tennis property in the summer of 2024. “This allows us to bring great players onto the court at the same time. And another way we knew would attract the top players would be to target dates in December. After we developed the basic structure, we went to market with those changes and began recruiting players. We got great feedback. I think that the former owners knew there needed to be new blood and a new vision for what the future of what the league should be; it’s an incredibly special property and part of the fabric of American tennis, so we could not be more excited to bring it back in this new fashion.”
With all of that, Amritraj and his WTT team are bringing the historic league into stadiums this December, continuing the league’s legacy of innovation. The matches will be fast-paced and competitive, with a live DJ in the arenas to keep fans entertained. You purchase one ticket, and you get to see all of these top players compete in the same night.
The New York Empire will play at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on December 1 and December 2, and will be led by top Americans Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Jessica Pegula, a roster that would be impossible to witness in one sitting anywhere else.
Amritraj’s connection to New York, and Long Island specifically, makes this venture that much more special to him personally. A huge portion of his life has been tethered to Long Island. His mother passed away five years ago, and bringing this type of tennis to the part of the country where her and her family are from holds an important piece of Amritraj’s heart.
“My grandfather lived in Brooklyn, and my mother grew up on Long Island, so it’s amazing to be playing there. I think she would be really happy about it,” he explained. “For a large portion of my life, I was always closer to the Indian side of my family, but to bring this to the area where my mom’s side of the family is from–its ironic how this all worked out. It really means so much.”
For his entire life, Amritraj has been dedicated to the sport of tennis and growing its reach, and that is the impetus behind his reimagined WTT. He is looking forward to engaging with the local community and providing an entertainment product they can be proud of, and one that is here to stay.
“We’re committed to integrating the community because that is where we want to be,” he said. “We want to hit the ground running this year, and then continue to improve the product every we can to grow it, and we are putting our best foot forward to create as great of a fan experience as we possibly can. That’s our vision of what success would be, and really represent the community and have the local support accordingly.”
