Philadelphia Freedoms Top NY Sportimes, 20-19

Published on July 12, 2013 under World TeamTennis (WTT)
New York Sportimes News Release


ALBANY, NY - Fighting off a furious comeback attempt by the host NY Sportimes, the Philadelphia Freedoms earned their first victory of the Mylan World TeamTennis season, winning, 20-19, in a Supertiebreak at SEFCU Arena in Albany. The Freedoms' women's doubles team of Victoria Duval and Liezel Huber secured the win by taking the first-to-13-point Supertiebreak, 7-1, over Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Kveta Peschke.

Philadelphia (1-3) opened strong behind its men's doubles team of Samuel Groth and Jordan Kerr, which topped Jesse Witten and Eric Quigley, 5-3. Duval then topped Groenefeld, 5- 4, in women's singles to extend the visitors' edge to 10-7. For the Sportimes (2-3), Witten then narrowed the deficit heading into halftime to a game with a 5-3 men's singles win over Groth.

Groth and Liezel Huber extended the Freedoms' lead to 18-13 with a dominating 5-1 win in mixed doubles, setting up the exciting finish. Groenefeld and Peschke won the women's doubles set, 5-1, necessitating an overtime period by WTT rules. The Sportimes' duo also won the overtime to even the match at 19 and extending to the Supertiebreak, before Duval and Huber recovered to spoil the host's comeback.

"We knew when we went out for the final set that we always have a chance in this format when your back you can always still win and we almost did it tonight," said Groenefeld. "We played really unbelievable doubles and then unfortunately in the tiebreaker we had a point here and there that we didn't make that we could have made so it was a little unlucky in the end."

"We tried all we could and I think we played awesome doubles but we were a little unlucky at the end," added Peschke. "Overall though it was a good match and we can build on it."

The teams meet again at SEFCU Arena on Monday, when James Blake competes as the marquee player for the Sportimes.

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