With Andy Roddick's unexpected early departure, much of the star power of this year's Legg Mason Classic went with him. At the semifinal matches on Saturday, fans had the chance to watch one of the two remaining seeded players eliminate the other, followed by a match between two relative unknowns. At the afternoon semifinal match, Tommy Haas struggled to make any headway in ending the winning streak of Juan Martín del Potro, losing the first......

21 minutes. That's how long it took top seeded Andy Roddick to win the first set from unheralded Serbian Viktor Troicki. Roddick's fall from grace, however, lasted a bit longer. Troicki found his game soon after, breaking Roddick's massive serve twice in the second set and continually frustrating the top seed with his off pace ground strokes, taking the final two sets for a 0-6, 6-2, 6-4. win. Roddick seemed confused as to what to......

The top seed at the Legg Mason Classic, the fast-hitting Andy Roddick, has not exactly coasted on his way to defend his championship this year. In his second-round match last night, he dropped the first set to Argentina's Eduardo Schwank, 4-6. Roddick won the second set, but Schwank pressed Roddick into a tie-breaker for the match, which Roddick won without too much trouble. Other players to advance to the quarterfinal were Serbia's Viktor Troicki, over......

Washington's most important tennis event, the Legg Mason Classic, got under way this week. Most of the major names in men's tennis are in Beijing this month, but ninth-ranked Andy Roddick, skipping the Olympics to be ready for the U.S. Open, decided to come back to the FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park to defend his title. Roddick is favored to win a second consecutive Legg Mason title, but he was happy to survive......

The Washington Kastles fell to Delaware's only professional sports team, the Smash, last night at Kastles Stadium at CityCenter DC in a final score of 20-16. Kastles players repeatedly failed to execute on a number of crucial game points which left the match close up until the final set, when Sacha Jones ultimately crumbled during an intense women's singles match-up with strong 18-year-old Smash player Madison Brengle. The match started out well in favor of......

The Washington Kastles rallied from an early deficit Tuesday night to defeat the visiting New York Sportimes and tennis legend John McEnroe in front of a capacity crowd at Kastles Stadium at CityCenter DC. The women's doubles team of Mashona Washington and Sacha Jones won their match 5 games to 1 to set up a super-tiebreaker to decide the match, which they won 7-5. The Sportimes took an early 10 games to 2 lead after......

Last week, we told you that the city's new World Team Tennis franchise, the Washington Kastles, asked you to come up with a name for one of their mascots. We are sorry, but perhaps not surprised, to disappoint DCist commenters with the news that Ballsy the Ball, Butterball, Deuce, Goofball, Meaty, Shuttle Cock, and my personal favorite, Dingle, were not chosen. According to the team's Web site, the winning suggestion was Topspin. If you submitted......

Regrettably, the Washington Kastles, the city's new World TeamTennis franchise, did not solicit our help in choosing their team name. Apparently wanting to make things right, the team is asking the public to suggest a name for one of their slightly creepy mascots, a dopey-eyed, cap-sporting tennis ball (the other one, a guy in a knight costume, is presumably, uh, Mr. Kastle? Sir Kastle?). The lucky person whose name is chosen will receive two free......

The newest addition to World TeamTennis will begin play this season, which opens July 3. First they will have to find a venue somewhere around town and draft players on April 1....

Although the team is techincally on their All-Star break, DC United will take on the Columbus Crew tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Germantown, MD as part of the U.S. Open Cup. After losing to Real Salt Lake over the weekend, United will look to get back to their winning ways in a tournament they haven't won since 1996. There's a good chance Santino Quaranta will be back in the United line up after taking......

>> They can have all the closed door clubhouse meetings they want, but after being swept by the Padres over the weekend, our beloved Nationals have lost 22 of their last 30 games. Ouch. Nats manager Frank Robinson tried to shuffle the line up yesterday to no avail, and if this keeps up, he's running out of time to try any other tricks he has up his sleeve. The Nats are off today as......

DCist cannot tell a lie. We were more than a little disappointed (although somewhat elated as we had yet to purchase tickets) to hear that Andre Agassi has withdrawn from this year's Legg Mason Tennis Classic to better focus on the upcoming US Open. Agassi, a five time champion of the event, won his first tournament of the year last weekend in Los Angeles and opted to take this week off, lest his back......

Catherine Andrews contributed to these picks FRIDAY: >> Okay, so it's not quite as groovy as the sing-along versions that swept the country over the last few years, but if you're looking for something a little bit fun and a whole lot wholesome tonight, you could do worse than the National Symphony Orchestra accompanying "The Wizard of Oz" on the lawn at the Wolf Trap. 8:30 p.m., $18 to $38. SATURDAY: >> Chopteeth, a......