Scott Oudsema by Max Cook
Last week the Washington Kastles were in last place in the Eastern Conference and things were looking grim. Despite having Rennae Stubbs and Leander Paes, two players who recently competed in the Wimbledon finals, the team just couldn’t get a win. Troubled by double faults and a low number of aces and break point conversions, the Kastles got off to an 0-4 start.
Flash forward to today. Thanks to a revenge win against the Philadelphia Freedoms last night, the team is now sitting at 4-4 and tied with the Boston Lobsters for second place in the Eastern Conference. Surprisingly Washington’s star player, Serena Williams, got shellacked by Philly’s Madison Keys, losing in women’s singles 1-5. Luckily the Kastles were able to hang in until the end where the close match was decided by a “Supertiebreaker”, resulting in a 19-18 win.
Tonight the Kastles take on the Newport Beach Breakers at home. At 5-3, the Breakers may present a challenge to Washington who will surely need everything they can get from Serena and the rest of the crew. Because tonight’s match is the only home game to feature Serena Williams, currently the #2 women’s player in the world, it will surely be sold out. However if you’re interested in seeing a tennis legend play, I suggest buying tickets for Thursday night’s match against the New York Sportimes featuring John “Big Mac” McEnroe who still plays with fire pumping through his veins.
The World TeamTennis finals will be held here in DC on Sunday, July 26th. If the Kastles keep up their level of play and “refuse to lose”, they might just be one of the teams competing for the title. As coach Murphy Jensen would say, “Come on!!!!!!!!”
