You Cannot Be Serious: Kastles Drop a Controversial One
The Washington Kastles tennis match last night against the New York Sportimes was surprisingly not sold out, but did come with everything you would expect from a match featuring John McEnroe.
In men's doubles, the Kastles had Scott Oudesma and Leander Paes on the court against McEnroe and Robert Kendrick. During that match, though, it was Mac's teammate who went a little crazy (although Johnny was never too far from the action). Paes accidentally hit Kendrick in the back with a ball; this set off Kendrick and McEnroe and led them to cross over onto the Kastles side of the court and get in Paes' face.
But that was just the beginning of the tension.
It was Kendrick's next serve which really was the match that lit the fuse. With Paes in front of the net, Kendrick -- intentions clear as day -- hit Paes on his upper left arm; Kendrick then did the classic move of pulling his arms up by his waist, palms facing the sky, to shrug it off and suggest "I didn't mean to."
Uh-huh, right.
The match was delayed a few minutes, the crowd appalled at Kendrick's extremely poor sportsmanship. But hey, there's no fistfighting in Party Tennis: Kendrick and Paes eventually shook hands and the set went on as planned. Unfortunately for the Kastles, Paes seemed to be a little too worked up and on edge after the fracas, and couldn't keep his balls inside the lines -- surely costing the Kastles a couple of points which would have really come in handy, seeing as how they ended up losing by one. Johnny Mac -- whom the owner of the Sportimes called "an oasis of calm in the chaos" (feel free to stifle those snickers) -- also came up big in men's singles, absolutely undressing Oudesma.
The loss snaps the Kastles' five-game winning streak, and bumps them back down to .500.
The Kastles play three more home matches this month (July 21, 22 and 26). Group tickets can be purchased in groups of four for $99, or single tickets starting at $30.