Hingis, Austin, Wilander highlight US Open Champions Invitational

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A slew of the world's best players are scheduled to compete today, but you can watch some of the former greats of the game compete on the outer courts this week as well.
Former US Open Champions Martina Hingis, Tracy Austin and Mats Wilander headline a list of hall of fame players and former top 10 stars that will be competing in the US Open Champions Invitational this week. The team-oriented format will take the 16 players and put them into four teams of four players each, with one player on each team serving as captain. The semifinals will take place during the week and the championship match is scheduled for Saturday.
With the exception of service lets being played, the World Team Tennis scoring format will be used for all matches. One set each of women’s doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles will be contested, with no-ad scoring and the first team to reach five games winning. If the set is tied at 4-4, a nine-point “super-tiebreaker” is used to decide the set. If necessary, overtime scoring and a super-tiebreaker will be used to decide the overall outcome of the match.
Teams are encouraged to substitute players in and a mandatory substitute will be implemented after the fourth game of the mixed doubles set (assuming a substitute hasn’t already been used). Hingis and 1993 French Open doubles champion Luke Jensen will serve as the “super-subs” for all matches. They are required to be on site for all matches and ready to play in the event a player is injured or otherwise unable to compete.
The full list of teams and players are below. In the first round, Team Connelly squares off against Team Kramer, and Team Tilden takes on Team Gibson. The winners and losers of each match will face each other on Saturday.