World Tennis League

The World Tennis League is a popular male and female team exhibition held in the United Arab Emirates.

Each year, the venue changes for the World Tennis League. Previous editions have taken place at the Coca-Cola Arena (2022) and the Etihad Arena (2023). In this team-based competition, 16 top players from the ATP and WTA compete in teams of four. However, the World Tennis League does not have an affiliation with either the ATP or WTA organizations.

Each team has four players, two male and two female. These teams are called Eagles, Falcons, Hawks, and Kites. In 2022, the World Tennis League format consisted of a round-robin setup, where each team played each other once.

Teams would compete against each other in mixed doubles and male and female singles matches. Moreover, teams would get one point for each game they won and a bonus point if they won a third-set tiebreak. After the round-robin, the team with the most points progressed to the final.

However, there was a slight change to the organization in 2023. The competition expanded to include two additional matches. The male and female doubles were added on top of a mixed doubles match. The singles matches remained the same as in 2022.

But, if the two competing teams were tied on points by the end of the round robin head to head, a Super Shoot Out took place to determine the winner. This was a first-to-10 tie-break match, where the winning team would receive two bonus points.

Several elite players from the men’s and women’s Tours have participated in the World Tennis League in recent seasons. In 2022, Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, Iga Swiatek, and Aryna Sabalenka were among the competitors.

More top players returned for the 2023 edition. Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Elena Rybakina competed, while Sabalenka and Swiatek also returned to the popular exhibition event.