Results tagged “washingtonkastles”

              

It's sadly not often that a Washington team wins a championship, so you might as well get down. A large collection of tennis aficionados did just that on Sunday night, after witnessing the Kastles overcome a late charge by the Springfield Lasers to win the WTT title and the King Trophy, 23-20. Since the WTT experience at its core is a jovial one, attendees were already in a good mood despite the sweltering heat and humidity. The victory for the home team had fans chanting in unison and leaping up and down.

              

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.

             

When the number of matches a team is scheduled to play at home over the course of an entire season numbers only seven, and among those, only one will include said team's "star player," it's tough not to be cynical about exactly what purpose that star is filling. Are D.C. fans really supposed to feel a connection to Wimbledon champion Serena Williams, or is she just being offered up as added enticement to buy tickets?

Astros 5, Nationals 0: Less than twenty-four hours after cranking out 13 runs on 21 hits, the Nationals couldn't muster up a single run in defeat yesterday afternoon.

• Nationals 11, Astros 10
  (Game 1): If only they could start every game with a runner on first and the score tied in the bottom half of the last inning, then the Nats might win a few more. Plenty of crazy baseball oddities in this one, the completion of the May 5th game, which started in D.C. Numerous players who were involved when the rain came two months ago weren't around last night: Nyjer Morgan took the place of the demoted Elijah Dukes on first and scored the winning run on an error by Astros shortstop Miguel Tejada. Joel Hanrahan (1-3), who now plays in Pittsburgh, was the winning pitcher of record; call it a belated going away present. (Although since the guy he was traded for -- Morgan -- scored the winning run, things seem kinda even.) Technically, this doesn't stop the Nats current losing streak, but hey, a win's a win, even when it only takes seven minutes to earn. Best of luck with the box score for this one, folks.
• Astros 9, Nationals 4 (Game 2): Surprise, surprise -- middle and late-inning pitching killed the Nationals yet again in their regularly-scheduled game at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Staff ace John Lannan (6-6) and Jason Bergmann allowed two big triples in the bottom of the sixth, and what was a 4-2 lead quickly soured into a 6-4 deficit. The National bats got to Houston starter Russ Ortiz early, but five Astro relievers went six scoreless to pick up his slack. Lance Berkman put the game out of reach in the eighth with a massive three-run homer to left-center field off Nats closer Mike MacDougal. That was more than enough for the normally run-challenged Astros, who scored nine runs in a game for the first time since June 5.
• Kastles 24, Lobsters 17: The Kastles finally got one in the win column in Boston, taking down Martina Navratilova and the Lobsters with wins in both women's matches and the mixed doubles. (Party tennis: maybe not the best technical tennis, but plenty of funky team names to enjoy.)

          

Most of the excitement, such as it was, about last night's poorly-attended match between the Washington Kastles and St. Louis Aces vanished when the main attraction, former star Anna Kournikova, was sidelined by a wrist injury. Or, at least, that would be true if the WTT was really about tennis, which it is not. Party tennis is right: the tour is obviously more entertainment than sport, focused on giving away T-shirts and Chipotle gift certificates and other such fun. Fans looking for an authentic tennis experience are advised, as always, to wait until next month's Legg Mason Classic.

            

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.

The Washington Kastles, D.C.'s one-year-old team in the World TeamTennis (WTT) league, announced their 2009 schedule today. The Kastles are set to host seven home matches this summer, along with the 2009 Advanta WTT Championship Finals in July. Team star Serena Williams will play in one home appearance, and throughout the season visiting star players Venus Williams, Anna Kournikova and John McEnroe will also play here in Washington.

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.