WTL's third season begins Thursday with new format

The third season of the World Tennis League, starting here Thursday, will follow a unique format where the top two teams with the highest number of games will advance to the final scheduled for December 22. The teams will compete in a single round-robin format, with each team playing one match against each other, as per the format. The season will begin with a clash between Game Changers Falcons, featuring top guns like Elena Rybakina and Andrey Rublev, and TSL Hawks, led by the Women's World. No 1 Aryna Sabalenka and India's Sumit Nagal.

Each match will consist of four sets: men's singles, women's singles, and two doubles sets, which may include men's doubles, women's doubles, or mixed doubles, as determined by the team that wins the coin toss. WTL will also follow a unique format in which, if the trailing team wins the fourth set, the match will go into overtime (OT).

OT will continue until the leading team wins one more game or the trailing team matches the overall game total. If the game scores are equal, the match will be decided by a Super Shootout. The same players playing the fourth set will continue to play the Super Shootout. The first to reach 10 points wins, with sudden death at 9-9. The winner of the Super Shootout will be awarded one game and also earn two additional bonus points. PTI