Concurrent with that announcement, the league also reported that the newly formed Empire had acquired the rights to former world number 1 male player Andy Roddick in a trade with the Orange County Breakers.
McEnroe said when he received a call from WTT co-founder Billie Jean King and commissioner Ilana Kloss telling him the league was hoping to bring a team back to New York to play in Forest Hills, "That was a no-brainer for me.
"To be able to play on the legendary courts at Forest Hills and be involved with a team in a city that I love, New York, will make this even more special.
In the roster player portion of the draft, the Empire was interested in selecting Christina McHale, a resident of nearby Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and traded up to do so.
[7] On July 20, 2016, the Empire announced it had signed 2015 WTT Male Rookie of the Year Neal Skupski to replace Oliver Marach, who had been selected to represent Austria at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
[12] After opening the season with three straight losses, the Empire secured the first win in franchise history on August 4, 2016, when it defeated the Springfield Lasers, 19–15, at Forest Hills Stadium.
Just a few months earlier, Willis became the lowest ranked qualifier to reach the second round of a Grand Slam tournament since 1988, when he defeated Ričardas Berankis at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships.
[14] Willis made his Empire debut that same evening in a road match against the five-time defending WTT champion Washington Kastles.
Willis and Stéphane Robert each served well and held all four of their service games to send the man's singles set to a tiebreaker with the Empire leading, 20–19.
Roddick and Neal Skupski opened the match by taking the men's doubles set in a tiebreaker after both teams held all their service games.
In men's singles, Roddick dropped one of his service games and could not convert any of his three break point opportunities against Stéphane Robert, which gave the Kastles the set, 5–3, and a 14–8 lead in the match.
Klepač and Treat Huey held serve in the opening game of extended play to give the Kastles a 22–13 victory and drop the Empire's record to 2 wins and 6 losses.
The Freedoms regained the lead at 10–9, when Martin and Broady took the mixed doubles set, 5–0, from Skupski and McHale, who had substituted for Irigoyen after the Empire fell behind, 0–3.
McHale and Irigoyen won 21 of the 32 points played against Broady and Crawford in the women's doubles set for a 5–1 victory that gave the Empire a 14–11 lead.
Reference:[8][9][32][33][34][35] Notes: Players are listed in order of their game-winning percentage provided they played in at least 40% of the Empire's games in that event, which is the WTT minimum for qualification for league leaders in individual statistical categories.