Founded 2016 | Current season 2017 Color Navy blue, orange, white | |
Team history New York Empire2016–present Based in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York Stadium Forest Hills Stadium(capacity: 2,500) Location New York City, New York, United States | ||
The New York Empire is a World TeamTennis (WTT) team that plays its home matches at Forest Hills Stadium in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City, New York in the United States of America.
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Founding of franchise
On February 17, 2016, WTT announced that the league would return to New York City for the 2016 season. The Empire would play its home matches at historic Forest Hills Stadium. The 14,000-seat stadium was to be reconfigured to seat approximately 2,500 fans for Empire home matches. Concurrent with that announcement, the league also reported that the newly formed Empire had acquired the rights to former world number 1 male player Andy Roddick in a trade with the Orange County Breakers. Patrick McEnroe, who is from Long Island, was named the team's head coach.
Inaugural season
The Empire struggled to a record of 2 wins and 10 losses in its inaugural season and finished last in the WTT standings.
The Empire made its debut on July 31, 2016, with a home match against the five-time defending WTT champion Washington Kastles. The match opened with Guido Pella and Neal Skupski dropping a men's doubles tiebreaker. The Empire managed to win only one set, when Pella took the men's singles, 5–2. The Kastles won the match, 22–15.
Skupski had been signed to replace Oliver Marach on the roster, after Marach was selected to represent Austria at the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Empire also lost Pella, who represented Argentina at the 2016 Summer Olympics, after he appeared in the first three matches of the season. He was replaced by Long Island native Noah Rubin for one match, Daniel Nguyen for two matches and Marcus Willis for the remainder of the season.
After opening the season with three straight losses, the Empire secured the first win in franchise history on August 4, 2016, when it defeated the Springfield Lasers, 19–15, at Forest Hills Stadium. Rubin teamed with Skupski to take the opening set of men's doubles, 5–2. After dropping the second and third sets, the Empire found itself trailing, 12–9. In the fourth set, New Jersey native Christina McHale and María Irigoyen held all three of their service games while breaking Michaëlla Krajicek and Pauline Parmentier twice for a 5–1 women's doubles set win that gave the Empire a 14–13 lead heading to the final set. Irigoyen and Skupski held all four of their service games and managed a break to win the fifth set of mixed doubles, 5–2, and close out the victory.
Andy Roddick appeared in two matches and lost both of his men's singles sets. Statistically, Pella was the team's strongest player, winning 65% of his men's singles games and 53% of his men's doubles games. Willis was also solid in men's singles, winning 54% of his games. After a difficult start during which McHale lost 36 of her first 48 women's singles games, she finished the season by winning 15 of her final 24 games. Playing men's singles and doubles in his only match appearance, Rubin recorded wins in 9 of his 16 games.