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Washington Kastles

End of An Era: Best of Kastles vs. Sportimes

January 22, 2014 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Washington Kastles News Release


The most heated rivalry in Mylan World TeamTennis came to an end on Jan. 16 when league officials announced that the New York Sportimes are now the San Diego Aviators.

The Sportimes were sold to California businessman Russell Geyser, who is relocating the team out west beginning this season.

Canadian entrepreneur Lorne Abony made a similar move last November by purchasing the Orange County Breakers and rebranding them the Austin Aces.

With change comes conference realignment. Though league officials have yet to reveal what the new East and West will look like, one thing is for certain.

If every point matters in World TeamTennis, they never mattered more than when the Kastles and Sportimes met on a multi-colored court.

Washington led its head-to-head with New York 14-4, but those numbers don't reveal what happened between the lines.

In the very first Kastles vs. Sportimes match on July 10, 2008, New York knocked off Serena Williams and the visiting Kastles 21-20. Washington returned the favor with an 18-17 comeback win over John McEnroe and the Sportimes five nights later in DC.

So began a budding feud featuring Grand Slam champions, Hall-of-Famers and one fantastic finish after another.

Of the 18 Kastles vs. Sportimes matches, three ended in overtime, six went to a winner-take-all Supertiebreaker and eight were decided by a single game. The Kastles won their last 11 encounters with the Sportimes, but needed to save 10 match points to do so.

Rivalries within the rivalry emerged.

In a 2009 match, Leander Paes hit Robert Kendrick with a volley, Kendrick pegged Paes with a serve, and a face-to-face confrontation ensued at Kastles Stadium. Kendrick won the battle, but Paes won the war, rebounding from Washington's 20-19 loss to win eight straight men's doubles sets against Kendrick over the next four years.

Kastles closer Bobby Reynolds joined the fray in 2010 and quickly found a foil in Jesse Witten of the Sportimes. The Americans had split four matches in college and four meetings on the pro tour. But in the first-to-five format of Mylan WTT, Reynolds always seemed a step ahead of Witten. He beat Witten in eight of 11 men's singles sets overall.

At times, Kastles vs. Sportimes has been a family feud.

Sisters united (Anastasia and Arina Rodionova ), a doubles team divided (Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears), and a married couple even got in on the action (Chuck Adams and Ashley Harkleroad).

Only one player has been both a Kastle and a Sportime, and her story sums up the rivalry well.

The Sportimes went 0-6 against the Kastles when Martina Hingis was in their lineup in 2011 and 2012. Washington went 3-0 against New York after Hingis swapped teams in 2013.

KASTLES 18, SPORTIMES 17

July 15, 2008 - Kastles Stadium

What Happened: With the Kastles trailing 10-2, Scott Oudsema swept men's singles and doubles, setting the stage for a Supertiebreaker won by Mashona Washington and Sacha Jones .

What Happened Next: The first-year Kastles finished 6-8 after a five-match losing streak. Oudsema was the sole survivor from the core roster, joining new coach Murphy Jensen in 2009.

SPORTIMES 20, KASTLES 19

July 16, 2009 - Kastles Stadium

What Happened: Paes and Kendrick tagged each other with shots during the men's doubles set, prompting Kendrick's partner McEnroe to get in the Indian's face. Click here for video of the altercation.

What Happened Next: The Sportimes won the set 5-4 and the match 20-19. But the Kastles had the last laugh, avenging themselves in the Eastern Conference Championship match the following week.

KASTLES 22, SPORTIMES 19

July 24, 2009 - Kastles Stadium

What Happened: With the score tied at 12-12, Olga Puchkova and Rennae Stubbs defeated Spears and Christina Fusano 5-2 to lead the Kastles to their first of four appearances in the WTT Finals.

What Happened Next: After starting 0-4, the 2009 Kastles completed a remarkable run when Puchkova fought off three match points against the Springfield Lasers to win the WTT Finals at Kastles Stadium.

KASTLES 20, SPORTIMES 19

July 12, 2011 - Kastles Stadium

What Happened: Reynolds and Paes saved five match points against McEnroe and Travis Parrott, including the 6-6 point of a Supertiebreaker when Reynolds hit a big first serve and Paes put away a volley.

What Happened Next: It was deja vu one week later when Reynolds and Paes stunned the Sportimes again by saving another match point in a Supertiebreaker. The Kastles went on to win the WTT title.

KASTLES 21, SPORTIMES 20

July 21, 2012 - Troy, N.Y.

What Happened: Washington trailed 19-13 before Venus Williams beat Hingis 5-1 in the final set, 2-0 in overtime and 7-0 in a Supertiebreaker, saving four match points and winning the last 11 points overall.

What Happened Next: Venus' heroics kept the Kastles' historic win streak alive, which they extended to 30 going into the Eastern Conference Championship match. Their opponents? The Sportimes, of course.

KASTLES 19, SPORTIMES 15

September 15, 2012 - Charleston, S.C.

What Happened: Kastles vs. Sportimes came down to the final set, and once again Venus made the difference. She broke a 14-14 tie by beating Harkleroad 5-1, sending the Kastles to the WTT Finals.

What Happened Next: Less than 24 hours later, the Kastles defeated the Sacramento Capitals 20-19 to capture their third King Trophy. The match was tied 15-15 until Venus edged CoCo Vandeweghe 5-4.

KASTLES 23, SPORTIMES 15

July 8, 2013 - Kastles Stadium

What Happened: In Hingis' debut for the Kastles, she helped beat her former team and extend the Kastles' win streak to 33 matches, tying the major U.S. pro sports record held by the 1971-72 LA Lakers.

What Happened Next: The Kastles surpassed the Lakers one night later with a 25-12 rout of the Boston Lobsters. They went on to win their third consecutive Mylan WTT title and fourth in five years.

Leander Leads Mylan WTT Stars at Australian Open

Kastles Captain is 1 of 8 League Players to Reach Quarterfinals

Kastles captain Leander Paes continues his quest for a 15th Grand Slam title tonight when he and Daniela Hantuchova meet Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

Paes and Hantuchova have combined to win 10 mixed doubles majors. But in their first tournament as a team, they've split sets in back-to-back matches, clinching victory in 10-point match tiebreakers.

The Indian/Slovak pair played a peculiar match on Monday against Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina, defeating the No. 8 seeds 6-0, 2-6, [10-6] in only 57 minutes.

It may have been the final meeting between two of India's greatest players ever, with Bhupathi expected to retire this summer.

Together, Paes and Bhupathi won three Grand Slam titles in six finals, most recently reaching the Australian Open championship match in 2011.

Apart, Paes holds the head-to-head edge against Bhupathi 14-10 in men's doubles, 3-1 in mixed doubles and 3-0 in men's singles.

Paes' latest win over his countryman has set him and Hantuchova up against the Wimbledon champions tonight at 1 am DC time on ESPN3.com. The 41-year-old Nestor and 20-year-old Mladenovic are 14-2 as a team in four Grand Slams together.

In the men's doubles quarterfinals, Paes and Radek Stepanek fell to French Open finalists Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 7-6(4) on Wednesday.

The No. 5 seeds Paes and Stepanek entered on a roll, having lost only five games in each of their first three matches. But they failed to earn a single break point against the Frenchmen, whom they defeated in three sets at the 2013 US Open.

Despite the setback, Paes has now reached the men's and mixed doubles quarterfinals at the same major tournament 18 times in his illustrious career. He and Stepanek are 26-5 in Grand Slam play together.

The two-time Male MVP Paes is one of eight Mylan World TeamTennis players to reach at least the quarterfinals at this year's Australian Open, proving that WTT is the summer setting to the stars.

Raquel Kops-Jones, who played four matches for the Kastles in 2012 and one in 2013, advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal. She and Abigail Spears (San Diego Aviators) were edged by French Open champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Also making her Grand Slam semifinal debut is 19-year-old Eugenie Bouchard (Texas Wild), whose women's singles run included an upset of Serena Williams' conqueror Ana Ivanovic on Tuesday.

The No. 31 seed Bouchard meets two-time finalist Na Li tonight at 9:30 pm on ESPN2 and ESPN3.com.

With Martina Hingis missing from Murphy Jensen 's lineup, Bouchard clinched the Wild's 23-18 victory over the Kastles on July 10, ending Washington's record-setting 34-match win streak. Hingis defeated Bouchard 5-1 in the rematch on July 19, leading the Kastles to a 23-16 win over a Texas team that included Bob and Mike Bryan.

The World No. 1 Bryans were stunned in the third round of the Australian Open by Eric Butorac (Boston Lobsters) and Raven Klaasen, who followed that up with a quarterfinal win over Treat Huey (Austin Aces) and Dominic Inglot on Tuesday.

Butorac, who has faced the Kastles 11 times as a Lobster since 2010, is on Rod Laver Arena right now in the men's doubles semifinals. Watch him and Klaasen against Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic, the 2010 finalists, live on Tennis Channel and ESPN3.com.

Rounding out the team tennis takeover are women's doubles semifinalist Kveta Peschke (San Diego Aviators) and mixed doubles quarterfinalist Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Texas Wild).

When it comes to the Kastles, you can keep up with the progress of Washington's players all season long by visiting the 'Kastle Tracker' at WashingtonKastles.com.

Besides results and schedules, the Australian Open 'Kastle Tracker' includes links to live streams, live scores and match replays. Now you can watch 16 full-length matches featuring your favorite Kastles, including Paes, Kops-Jones, Venus Williams and Anastasia Rodionova .

Like the Kastles on Facebook and follow the team on Twitter and Instagram for more Kastles coverage from down under.

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