INTENNSE is a team based fast paced format played in the US. It follows similar fast paced formats elsewhere around the world. This weekend is the start of the inaugural league which will take place at weekends for the next 2 months in a specially constructed arena in a sound stage in Atlanta, Georgia. It features 3 teams that all have British interest plus a challenge team. Teams are generally made up of low ranked pros and recent college graduates. I know you're thinking how can you have a league with 3 teams. As I understand it, this is about proving the concept to attract more teams in the future.
British involvement is
Team Atlanta is co-coached by Hannah Keeling. Hannah is head coach of the men's and women's tennis programmes at Georgia Gwynette University where for her 3 seasons there she has a 114-7 coaching record , is a 5 time NAIA national champion and a 5 time NAIA head coach of the year. There aren't any British players on the team.
Team Tampa includes Tara Moore
Team Jackonsville has graduate student Annabelle Thomas (nee Davis) (North Florida and Clemson) and recent graduates Sam Nicholson (Montana, UNC Asheville, UNC Wilmington) and Sofia Johnson (Old Dominion).
Players receive a salary of $10,000 for a full season plus prize money.
The format is 6 players on each team, 3 men and 3 women. A dual consists of 3 matches, men's singles, women's singles and doubles Each match consists of 3 bolts. A bolt is a continuous 10 minutes play. The doubles bolts are 1 mens, 1 women's and 1 mixed. During each bolt unlimited substitions are allowed but the clock doesn't stop for anything Teams have 2 60 second timeouts per match There is 14 seconds for a serve. Only 1 toss, 1 serve is allowed per point. No ball in pocket is allowed. The server does not need to wait for the receiver to be ready Each point is 1 point with 2 points for a clean winner Winner of the point has serve The winner of the match is the team with the most points from the 3 bolts. The winner of the dual is the team with the most points from the 3 matches. Prize money is awarded to the winners of matches and duals.
Yesterday Tampa played Jacksonville, which was won by Jackonsville. Sam Nicholson was undoubtedly the player of the match. He played about 27- 28 minutes of the 30 minutes men's match and built an unassailable lead for Jackonsville. Annabelle played and won the first bolt in the women's and started the 2nd but the momentum switched to Tampa and was substituted at her request early in the 2nd bolt. With Tara and Sofia being involved in the play offs this week they weren't available for the 6 person teams this weekend.
Having watched this for the novelty, for me it was too fast to keep track of what was going on and the commentary didn't help either. I'm not sure why they chose a sound stage for the venue. While there were spectators it looked like just 1 row of seating down the side of the courts. I felt it would work better if there was a larger more rowdy crowd that you get at some college duals. I guess what they're trying to build here is something they can eventually sell to the US TV networks. Purists will hate this format, but as college tennis has found selling team tennis played the conventional way to the US networks is impossible so they have to try something different.
