Explorers select doubles standouts Rennae Stubbs and Kveta Peschke with first picks at WTT Roster Player Draft
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (April 1, 2008) – As if facing the world’s top doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan wasn’t intimidating enough for Kansas City Explorers’ opponents, now they will see one of the best women’s doubles teams on the other side of the net.
The Explorers drafted the doubles team of Rennae Stubbs and Kveta Peschke with their first picks in today’s World TeamTennis Roster Player Draft in Miami. Stubbs and Peschke, the No. 5 ranked team in the world, won a title earlier this year in Doha and teamed up for three tournament wins in 2007. Stubbs has won 59 doubles championships on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, including for Grand Slam titles and Peschke has won 12 tour doubles titles.
“Doubles is so important in World TeamTennis matches and I don’t think there’s any team that can top our line up of great doubles players,” said Explorers co-owner Jeff Launius. “I’m thrilled that we will have Rennae and Kveta for this season. They are two players who are at the top of their game and they are exciting to watch.”
Kansas City added James Auckland, a doubles specialist from Great Britain, to their lineup. Auckland is currently ranked in the top 120 in doubles and has reached the semifinals of two doubles Challenger events this year.
The Explorers also protected their rights to Dusan Vemic of Serbia who returns for his second season in Kansas City. In 2008, Vemic has won Challenger doubles events in Miami and Sunrise, Fla.
The team earlier picked up Bob and Mike Bryan in the WTT Marquee Player Draft held in February.
The Explorers open their 2008 season on the road on July 4 in Sacramento and will play their first home match on Sunday, July 6, against the Springfield Lasers. All home matches are scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m. CST. The Bryan brothers return to Kansas City on July 19 when the Kansas City Explorers host the League’s newest team, the Washington Kastles. The schedule includes seven home matches at Barney Allis Plaza in downtown Kansas City and seven road matches.
The Explorers are in the Western Conference along with the Springfield Lasers, St. Louis Aces, Sacramento Capitals and Newport Beach Breakers.
Season tickets are on sale now through the Explorers office at 816-513-5630 or online at www.KCExplorers.com. Individual match tickets go on sale on May 20.
The schedule for the WTT Pro League presented by Advanta includes 77 matches in 11 markets beginning July 3 and running through July 23 with the season-ending WTT Championship Weekend, set for July 24-27, in Roseville, Calif., home of the Sacramento Capitals.
The 11-team League was co-founded by Billie Jean King in the early 1970s. Each team has two male and two female players who play singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches.
KANSAS CITY EXPLORERS: James Auckland, Bob Bryan, Mike Bryan, Kveta Peschke, Rennae Stubbs, Dusan Vemic. Coach: Brent Haygarth
About WTT:
The 2008 season will be the 33rd year of World TeamTennis action. WTT is well known for introducing innovative elements to tennis including instant replay, co-ed format, cumulative and no-ad scoring, on-court coaching, Supertiebreakers, multi-colored courts and player names on back of their shirts.
Advanta is the presenting sponsor of the WTT Pro League and the official business credit card of World TeamTennis. Official WTT Pro League sponsors for the 2008 season are Bälle dê Mätch, FirmGreen Energy, Gatorade, GEICO and Wilson Racquet Sports.
For more information on WTT including team rosters, visit www.WTT.com
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