Philadelphia: The final push to make the playoffs in World Team Tennis and that is what we had on Sunday night as the Philadelphia Freedoms took on the Springfield Lasers from Hagan Arena on the campus of Saint Joseph’s University. Before the match, the Freedoms would find out that they have clinched their playoff spot.
The Order of the Matches for their encounter with Springfield was as follows
Men’s Doubles
Men’s Singles
Mixed Doubles
Women’s Doubles
Women’s Singles
The Freedoms would have Andre Gardner from WMGK introduce the team
In the first set which was Men’s Doubles as the team of Enrique Lopez Perez & Robert Lindstedt from Springfield would down the Freedoms Fabrice Martin & Mitchell Kruger 5-2.
The Freedoms would respond in the second set which is Men’s Singles as Mitchell Kruger would defeat Enrique Lopez Perez 5-1. The Freedoms would get a big break as the Hawkeye system would overturn the chair umpire call and the Freedoms would take advantage to and Mitchell Kruger would finish the set. The Freedoms would lead the overall match 8-6.
The third set which was Mixed Doubles and the Freedoms lead by Fabrice Martin & Raquel Atawo would win the set over the team of Abigail Spears & Robert Lindstedt as the Freedoms increased their lead to 13-9 through 3 sets of play.
The Fourth set was Women’s Doubles and the Lasers were lead by Abigail Spears & Olga Govortsova would make things interesting as they would take down the Freedoms lead by Taylor Townsend & Raquel Atawo 5-4 and they cut into the Freedoms lead of 17-14.
In the Final Set which was Women’s Singles and Olga Govortsova of the Lasers would beat Taylor Townsend and this would send the match to extended play
In the extended play, Springfield would take the first game but Taylor Townsend would take the second game for the win as the Freedoms win the match 22-20.
A Crowd of 1,117 would see a very exciting match as the Freedoms will build off this as they get ready to head into the playoffs.
Taylor Townsend would finish out the final set to secure the win for the Freedoms
This was the 2nd time that the Freedoms would go to extended play, at home and they would win both matches.
The Freedoms would remain undefeated at home with this victory and will try to finish the season at home undefeated when they play New York on July 31. The Freedoms will play in the Playoffs on August 2nd & 3rd in Las Vegas.
Interviews:
Freedoms Taylor Townsend:
Freedoms Mitchell Kruger:
Philly Sports Blitz 