Las Vegas’ team tennis squad looks loaded in its return to the court

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, July 16, 2020 | 2 a.m.

Tim Blenkiron might have lost out on some of the praise he deserved after winning the NCAA men’s doubles tennis national championship in 1997 at UNLV.

The Australian native’s spectacular senior season alongside doubles partner Luke Smith happened to coincide with the Bryan brothers’ freshman campaign at Stanford, where they led the Cardinal to a national team title. Now widely considered the greatest men’s doubles duo of all-time, Bob and Mike Bryan were already starting to become a media phenomenon.

“Everyone was talking about them,” Blenkiron says. “They were big news even back then. Their records as American juniors were phenomenal. They were the new kids on the block, and everyone knew they were going to go on to be great players.”

Blenkiron and the Bryan brothers won’t be competing for attention this month—they’re on the same side. The Bryan Brothers headline the roster for the Vegas Rollers, coached by Blenkiron, as World TeamTennis begins its 2020 season at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

The Bryan Brothers—along with Rollers teammate and 15-time ATP winner Sam Querrey—only made a couple of appearances for Blenkiron and the Rollers in the Vegas squad’s inaugural season in 2019, but all three signed on for the full 14-match slate this year. That’s been common across the nine-team WTT, with many teams gaining a talent boost as the coronavirus interrupted virtually all other tennis competition.

“I think initially we were one of the strongest teams, if not the strongest team as far as our roster was concerned,” Blenkiron says. “But since the pandemic, with so many high-level players wanting to get in on the action, I’m seeing it’s a very strong competition this year.”

Other notable players across the league include Philadelphia’s Sofia Kenin, rated No. 4 in the world in women’s singles, and 2017 U.S. Open women’s singles champ Sloane Stephens, who’s playing for Chicago. The New York Empire, meanwhile, inked a pair of former Grand Slam winners in Kim Clijsters and Jack Sock.

“Our player rosters are the strongest we’ve ever fielded for a WTT season,” WTT commissioner Carlos Silva said in a statement.

The WTT has accordingly upped the ante in terms of television coverage and prize money. Every match will be broadcast or streamed in some capacity, either by CBS, ESPN or the Tennis Channel. The total prize pool is up to $5 million, with an extra $1 million split between the four teams that make the playoffs. The eventual champions will take home a $500,000 bonus in addition to the King’s Trophy.

Blenkiron says he hopes the added stakes and talent level will result in some additional civic pride in Las Vegas. “That’s my biggest motivation,” he says. “I’ve been in Vegas 26 years, and I have so much love for [this] city. It’s given me everything in my life. To be able to represent Las Vegas in this capacity is truly an honor for me, and to have this great team representing us is very special.”

On the women’s side of the Rollers’ roster, Asia Muhammad, whom Blenkiron has trained since she was a child, and Monica Puig, a former Olympic gold medalist for Puerto Rico, return for their second season. They’ll be joined by Kristie Ahn, another Stanford grad and top-100 rated singles player.

Vegas finished tied for fifth place with a 6-8 record last year, just missing the playoffs. “We learned that there are a lot of variables we weren’t aware of,” Blenkiron says. “It really comes down to the players performing and even getting a little lucky. We lost two matches by a point and two matches by one game. If we won 50% of those matches, I think we would have made the finals.”

World TeamTennis matches are contested in five sets: men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles. It’s up to Blenkiron to set the lineup and determine who plays where, a task he feels more confident about after gaining experience last year.

He’ll be down one assistant coach, however. Last year’s Rollers talisman, tennis fanatic Redfoo from music group LMFAO, won’t make the trip to West Virginia. Blenkiron said Redfoo considered returning, but ultimately decided he couldn’t be so far away from his family in Southern California for up to three weeks.

All players and team personnel will be quarantined at Greenbrier between matches until competition is complete. The regular season started July 12 and runs through July 29, with the championship scheduled for August 2.

Blenkiron says he’s made no plans to come home early, largely because he’s got his old rivals leading the Rollers.

“To have the Bryan brothers for the full season is very exciting,” Blenkiron says. “They’re the greatest doubles team of all time. Having them on our team is an absolute honor.”

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.