Empire Fall Short Against Aviators
Despite a first-set boost from Neal Skupski and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, the New York Empire presented by Citi could not overcome a successful World TeamTennis debut from a budding American tennis star and dropped the last four sets in a pivotal 22-15 defeat to the host San Diego Aviators on Thursday at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa.
The Empire (5-5), which entered the match with four wins in five matches, fell into a third-place tie with San Diego (5-5) and the Orange County (Calif.) Breakers (4-4) in the World TeamTennis standings. San Diego swept the season (home-and-home) series from the Empire, which has four matches left in its regular season. The WTT Playoffs are contested among WTT’s top four teams from the regular season Aug. 2-3 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.
San Diego coach John Lloyd played to the Empire’s strength in setting the match’s order of play to begin with mixed doubles. It allowed WTT’s leading mixed doubles team of Skupski and Martinez Sanchez to propel the Empire to a 5-2 set victory over Jonny O’Mara and Anna-Lena Groenefeld after 11 minutes. Skupski-Martinez Sanchez, who reached the 2019 Australian Open mixed doubles semifinals, ran off the first three games, then dropped the next two before Skupski held his serve at love – capped by an ace – to get the Empire back on track and see out the set. Skupski and Martinez Sanchez have won six-of-eight sets together in WTT this season by a 30-20 aggregate score.
The second set – women’s doubles – marked the World TeamTennis (and Aviators) playing debut for 17-year-old American sensation Amanda Anisimova (No. 23 in the WTA Rankings), a 2019 French Open singles semifinalist who also reached the Round of 16 in her first Australian Open in January and is the youngest ranked player in the WTA’s top 100. Anisimova partnered with Groenefeld to win the set, 5-3. Tied 2-2, the Empire’s Martinez Sanchez and Kirsten Flipkens had their service games broken consecutively. Down 3-4, the Empire duo held off two set points against before Martinez Sanchez hit a backhand into the net at deuce to cede the set.
The tide of the match turned squarely in the Aviators’ favor in the ensuing men’s doubles set. San Diego’s O’Mara and Darian King combined a 91-percent first-serve percentage through four service games (O’Mara hit on all nine of his first serves) with sharp volleying to overpower Skupski and Ulises Blanch in a 5-2 set win. Skupski’s service game was broken at love to put the Empire down 3-1 in the set and give the Aviators their first overall lead in the match.
With the Empire trailing 12-10 at the intermission, the pressure was on Flipkens to deliver in women’s singles against Anisimova, and she responded by winning the first three games of the set. However, Anisimova found her stroke and rhythm thereafter as she began dictating play from the baseline and ran the table en route to a 5-3 set win. Down 2-3 and facing four break points against on her serve at 0-40, Anisimova ran off 12 of the next 13 points to close out the set.
The momentum San Diego generated from Anisimova’s fourth-set turnaround and a 17-13 deficit seemed to deflate the Empire bench. It carried over into the final set for the Aviators as King won the first three games for the hosts in men’s singles and cruised to a 5-2 win over WTT rookie Blanch.
The match’s intermission highlight (after the third set) was San Diego’s on-court jersey retirement ceremony for Australian tennis legend Rod Laver, a San Diego County resident who played World TeamTennis for the San Diego Friars from 1976-78. Laver was WTT’s Male Rookie of the Year in 1976, which came after the former World No. 1 won 20 Grand Slam tennis titles (11 in singles), holding singles championships for all of the Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969.
►Mixed Doubles: Skupski/Martinez Sanchez (NYE) def. O’Mara/Groenefeld (SDA), 5-2
►Women’s Doubles: Groenefeld/Anisimova (SDA) def. Martinez Sanchez/Flipkens (NYE), 5-3
►Men’s Doubles: O’Mara/King (SDA) def. Skupski/Blanch (NYE), 5-2
►Women’s Singles: Anisimova (SDA) def. Flipkens (NYE), 5-3
►Men’s Singles: King (SDA) def. Blanch (NYE), 5-2
The Empire conclude its four-match road trip Saturday at the WTT expansion Orlando Storm (7 p.m. ET at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.) before returning home to the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning in The Bronx to face the reigning WTT champion Springfield (Mo.) Lasers at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, July 29. Nine-year WTT veteran and United States Davis Cup captain Mardy Fish returns to the Empire lineup for the third consecutive season to face Springfield and the Philadelphia Freedoms on Tuesday, July 30 – the Empire’s final two home matches in the 2019 WTT season.
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