Kastles Report: Put Away The Tea, It's Party Tennis Time
The Washington Kastles, the local World Team Tennis franchise, played their 2009 home opener last night. Sadly, their 23-16 loss to the 1-2 Philadelphia Freedoms (whose star player Venus Williams was the big draw of the evening), pushed their record back to 0-3 overall. But World Team Tennis is not entirely about what's going on on the court or trivial things like win-loss records. In fact, we'd like to dub World Team Tennis as something more appropriate. Moving forward, we'll call it what it is: Party Tennis.
Party Tennis' rules are a little different from what you're used to:
- Two men and two women compete on each team.
- The match format consists of five sets (men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles).
- Every game counts as a point in the overall score. (For instance, a typical score is 23-19.)
- A team must win the last game of the last set or the match goes into overtime.
Got it? In addition to all that, you have a rowdy crowd that's encouraged to cheer, actual cheerleaders and hypemen (and women), a knight mascot and giant plushie tennis ball named Topspin roaming the stands, an exuberant announcer giving play-by-play, a coach who can challenge calls, let serves that are still in play and thundering music coming from a DJ booth. Like I said: Party Tennis.
From Mayor Adrian Fenty to the Wizards' Caron Butler to Top Chef's Carla Hall -- Party Tennis drew a fairly elite D.C. crowd on opening night. Coach Murphy Jensen proved to be a favorite, even earning praise from Fenty (a self-proclaimed "huge fan"). Fenty joined Kastles owner Mark Ein in opening up the festivities. The Mayor said, "things just keep getting better here in the city." (Because once you get Party Tennis, you've hit the stratosphere, people.)
The actual match kicked off with men's singles. The Kastles' Scott Oudsema (henceforth known as "the handsomest guy in all of Party Tennis") took on the Freedoms' Nathan Healey. Oudsema took an early lead, dominating from the outset -- but Healey came back big in the end, earning a 5-4 victory over the Kastles. It set the tone for the rest of the night -- the only match won by the Kastles was men's doubles. Venus Williams took a two-game lead over the Kastles' Olga Puchkova in no time at all; with three big aces, she won the match 5 games to 2. Next up: mixed doubles. Williams and Healey took on Rennae Stubbs and Leander Paes in a great, close match. Three of the four players on the court were in finals at Wimbledon the prior week; Party Tennis attracts only the best talent. The Kastles ultimately fell 5-3, punting another one.
A half time break featured an "Ask Venus" segment led by a kid reporter and a quick start match, where Williams and Stubbs played doubles with two children who had completed the afternoon's tennis clinic. Team Williams showed no mercy and handily won. Then it was on to the final two matches of the night. First, Williams and Lisa Raymond played Stubbs and Puchkova. Williams was completely unstoppable all night long. Even after winning women's doubles, the Kastles were still down 20 games to 11. After a quick break where Coach Murphy got stomped in Wii tennis by a kid (really, we can't stress this enough: Party Tennis), the night's most enthralling, and final, match began. "Boom Boom" Oudsema and Paes took on Healey and Eric Nunez in men's doubles. It was neck and neck, coming down to a 5-2 lead by the Kastles.
But wait! This is Party Tennis! There's got to be a strange rule to spread out the drama!
Overtime eliminates the possibility of the final sets becoming exhibitions. If the team ahead in the cumulative score wins the final game of the last set, then that team is the winner. If, however, the trailing team wins the final set, the match is sent into overtime and continues until, a) the leading team wins one game, or b) the trailing team ties the match score. If the score becomes tied, the match is decided by a Supertiebreaker.So, of course, "Boom Boom" and crew took the match into overtime. Since we were playing a team from Philadelphia, a loud and likely intoxicated guy in the back row with a towel around his neck was cheering for the Freedoms with impressive volume. The Kastles invoked Coach Murphy's "Refuse to Lose" motto and squeaked out a win. It couldn't even out the overall score though, and Philly took the evening 23-16.
Tonight, the Kastles take on the St. Louis Aces, featuring star player Anna Kournikova. The Russian, though, will be out due to a wrist injury.