Fantastic Friday at the US Open Features Kastles Present and Past

The fourth-seeded Serena advances to meet World No. 1 and 2010 Kastle Victoria Azarenka in the championship match, which will air live on CBS and USOpen.org tonight at 8 pm. Azarenka defeated No. 3 seed Maria Sharapova 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a marathon, highlight-filled semifinal that preceded the Serena match.

Serena has dominated Azarenka over the course of their rivalry, winning nine of 10 matches and 12 straight sets against the Belarusian. Already this season, Serena has defeated Azarenka at Madrid, Wimbledon and The Olympic Games.

Serena previously won the US Open singles tournament in 1999, 2002 and 2008 and finished as the runner-up in 2001 and 2011.

A victory tonight would give Serena the 15th Grand Slam singles title of her career and 30th major championship overall, including 13 women's doubles titles with sister Venus Williams and two mixed doubles titles with Max Mirnyi.

Since losing in the singles quarterfinals of the Sony Open in Miami, Serena has been the most dominant tennis player -- male or female -- in the world. She is 42-2 in singles and 13-1 in doubles during that time, with two Wimbledon championships, two Olympic gold medals and three other WTA singles titles.

Leander Paes, Radek Stepanek and Mike & Bob Bryan pose with their trophies.

(Photo by Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA)

The day started with Serena's Washington teammate and team Camptain Leander Paes playing in his sixth US Open men's doubles final on Friday, falling 6-3, 6-4 with Radek Stepanek against Bob and Mike Bryan of the Kansas City Explorers.

The fourth-year Kastle who has dazzled Kastles fans over that time has now competed in 29 Grand Slam finals during his illustrious career, including four this season. Paes and Stepanek defeated the Bryans for the Australian Open men's doubles title, while Paes and Elena Vesnina finished as runners-up in mixed doubles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

On Friday, Paes played fearless tennis in the first set, saving three break points with volley winners at 0-1 and three set points with unreturnable serves at 3-5.

The second-seeded Bryans finished just 2-of-12 on break points, but the fifth-seeded Paes and Stepanek failed to reach break point a single time. One break of Stepanek in each set was all the American twins needed to etch their names in the history books.

With the win, the Bryans captured their 12th Grand Slam men's doubles title as a team, setting an Open Era record and tying the all-time mark held by Australian legends John Newcombe and Tony Roche.

During the trophy ceremony, Paes paid tribute to the Bryans and vowed to play as hard as he can every day for the rest of the year.

That includes September 15-16 at WTT Finals Weekend in Charleston, S.C., where Paes hopes to lead the Kastles to their third world championship since 2009.

He will be joined in the Washington lineup by four-time Olympic gold medalist Venus Williams, 2012 WTT Male MVP Bobby Reynolds, two-time WTT Coach of the Year Murphy Jensen and Anastasia & Arina Rodionova .

Detailed information on WTT Finals Weekend tickets, hotels, flights and team events can be found on WashingtonKastles.com.

Leander Paes traded his Babolat racquet for a Head frame just prior to the US Open.

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World TeamTennis Stories from September 8, 2012

• Fantastic Friday at the US Open Features Kastles Present and Past - Washington Kastles

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