New World Team Tennis Club Identities Revealed

Jessica Pegula as the face of the new World Team Tennis New York Empire Racquet Club.

World Team Tennis

With Tommy Paul, Jessica Pegula and Denis Shapovalov signed on to lead the three revamped World Team Tennis clubs, the league revealed the visual identities of the teams: Florida Flamingos Racquet Club, New York Empire Racquet Club and Toronto North Racquet Club.

The mixed-gender professional team tennis league relaunches this December with the three clubs, led by the faces of each franchise who are part of the ownership model that gives competing players equity in the league. “Our goal has always been to modernize WTT’s incredible legacy and reshape our brands to create something as cool as it was back in the day,” says Stephen Amritraj, chief executive officer of WTT, about a league originally founded by Billie Jean King and others in 1974. “Our view is that tennis’ popularity starts with the best players in the world but has always extended well beyond the court into lifestyle and culture. That’s why we prioritized creative direction for our teams, developing unique identities that fans and players will connect with and want to be a part of.”

In that vein, each of the three clubs gets its own colors, crest and logo.

The Flamingos take the forefront in Florida, retaining the Florida Flamingos name from the WTT’s inaugural 1974 season, but with a refreshed identity that reimagines the original flamingo design into a mix of pink and deep burgundy. The league says the founding-year marker reflects the club’s 1974 creation and the crest captures the color and energy of metropolitan Miami.

“When I saw the branding for the Florida Flamingos, I couldn’t have been more excited,” says Paul, a resident of Boca Raton, Florida. “The tennis community in South Florida is very special to me, and I can’t wait for December.”

For the New York Empire Racquet Club, led by Buffalo-born Pegula, the league builds on the franchise that returned the WTT to New York in 2016 and won the league title in 2020. The new identity centers on an imperial NY monogram inspired by the city’s architecture. A geometric crown, influenced by the city’s Art Deco heritage, comes rendered in a near-monochrome design and is deliberately understated with strong verticals and sharp forms to echo the New York skyline.

WTT returns to Canada for the first time since the Toronto-Buffalo Royals competed in the inaugural 1974 season. The new crest, worn by Shapovalov, who grew up in Toronto, features a bold moose with six antlers representing Toronto’s six districts. The emblem features Canada’s iconic red.

“Building a distinct crest, logo and identity for each club that speaks to the culture, history and heartbeat of each city was an intentional first step in relaunching the league to give fans and players something to rally behind,” says Patrick Yee, chief business officer of WTT. “We wanted to develop clubs that can live well beyond the court and are inextricably linked with local communities, personalities and legacies.”

The season features six events, with each team playing two home matches and two away matches. The opening night takes place in December at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, before the league moves to the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto and then Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida.

The match format features four singles sets—one each for men’s and women’s No. 1 and No. 2 singles—and a mixed doubles super tiebreaker. The WTT says that the single-set, no-ad format highlights eight players competing in the same match window as a traditional best-of-five match, streamlining the experience for fans.

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