Freedoms July 14 Daily Update
Presented by
The Freedoms face the defending back-to-back World TeamTennis champion Springfield Lasers (0-1) tonight at 7pm. The match will be televised on ESPN+. Mitchell Krueger, Olga Govortsova, Robert Lindstedt, Hayley Carter, Jean-Julien Rojer, and Catherine McNally will take the court for the Lasers.
For live updates during the match, follow the Philadelphia Freedoms and World TeamTennis!
Inside the Match
- The Freedoms (1-0) look to knock-off the Lasers (0-1) and get revenge on the defending WTT Champions to move to 2-0 on the season
- Rising American women’s doubles players Catherine McNally and Hayley Carter star for the Lasers
- Former WTT Finals MVP and Grand Slam Champion Robert Lindstedt leads the Lasers
- 2019 Freedoms men’s singles player Mitchell Krueger has joined the Lasers this season
July 13 Match Recap
Freedoms Win All Five Sets and Take the Match 25-16; Move to 1-0
The experienced WTT duo of Fabrice Martin and Taylor Townsend started the evening’s affair with a dominant serving performance for the Freedoms. The 2016 WTT Male Rookie of the Year and 2017 WTT Female MVP won 16 of 18 service points for the 5-3 win against Andreja Klepac and Luke Bambridge.
2020 Australian Open singles champion, Sofia Kenin, got off to a hot start in her league debut, quickly building a 4-0 lead over Jennifer Brady. The former UCLA All-American chipped away at the lead however, and fought back to go up 0-30 while Kenin was serving for the set at 4-3.
“I’m just super happy I started off really well. I felt like I played well overall and she of course picked up her game, but I was able to close it out,” Kenin said. “Billie Jean King reached out to me and asked me to play for her team, so I was super excited and honored.”
Men’s doubles, the lone set of the evening to not feature any breaks of serve, was decided in a tiebreaker as Taylor Fritz and Martin saved three set points from 2-4 down. Serving on the final three points to close out the breaker, world No. 24 Fritz helped his team earn the tight 5-4(4) win over Bambridge and Steve Johnson to give Philadelphia a 15-10 lead heading into halftime.
A second 21-year-old American made her league debut Monday, as 2020 Australian Open doubles quarterfinalist, Caroline Dolehide, joined forces with Townsend and the duo converted all three of their break point chances to beat Klepac and Brady 5-3 in the fourth set of the match.
After losing 6-2 5-7 8-10 to Johnson just nine days ago at the DraftKings All-American Team Cup in Atlanta, Fritz exacted his revenge with a 5-3 win to put an exclamation point on Philadelphia’s first match of the season.
Next for the Freedoms
Tomorrow afternoon, the Freedoms face the New York Empire at 3pm. The match will be streamed live on Facebook Watch and CBS Sports Digital. 6-time Grand Slam Champ Kim Clijsters. Mardy Fish, Jack Sock, Sabine Lisicki, Neal Skupski, and Kveta Peschke will play for the Empire who are coached by Luke Jensen.
After three matches in as many days, the Freedoms have their first off day of the season on Thursday. Then, on Friday morning at 9am, the Freedoms play for the Washington Kastles and 23-time Grand Slam Champion Venus Willians. The match will also be streamed live on Facebook Watch and CBS Sports Digital.