In 2021, Tennis Acumen interviewed American Evan King at the Champaign Challenger tournament. Here is a part of that conversation:
Tennis Acumen: And you have played World Team Tennis. Tell me about that. I've never, never talked to a World Team Tennis player.
Evan King: That's a lot of fun. it brings a team aspect back. I will say one of the biggest things about tennis as an individual sport is that rarely when you practice with somebody, do you want the person that you're practicing with to get better. In World Team Tennis I'm practicing with my teammates. If they're playing well, the team does well, we do better. We win more matches, all that kind of stuff. If I'm playing a practice set against other pros out here, I want to beat them. I don't care how their practice goes because I want to do the best I can do. If they're playing well, they can potentially beat me. That's not good, you know what I mean?
Tennis Acumen: Yes, it's super interesting.
Evan King: So, World Team Tennis is less pressure filled, and it is really a break in the season because, yes, tennis is an individual sport. You want to be number one, individually. At World Team Tennis, you all are coming together, men and women, singles players, doubles players all have a common goal. We all try to help each other out for those two or three weeks to get better. And, I mean, it's fun. There's music, it's a faster pace because they only play up to five and they have no-ad scoring. They play lets. So, they do little things that make it a bit more exciting and more fun. Coming together for a common goal in what's usually an individualistic sport is a pretty special thing. Yeah, I think it's fun.
More of this exclusive interview is available at Tennis Acumen. Go to the interviews category, shown on the upper right hand side of the screen.
Tags: @EvanKingChicago
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