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Washington Kastles

Martina Wins Wuhan Open to Tighten WTA Finals Race

September 30, 2014 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Washington Kastles News Release


Kastles Star and Flavia Pennetta Climb WTA Finals Leaderboard

Washington Kastles star Martina Hingis is celebrating her birthday today (Sept. 30)! Click the image to send her your birthday wishes on the Kastles' Facebook page.

New World No. 15 Martina Hingis has reached her highest doubles ranking since the end of the 2002 season after she and Flavia Pennetta saved two championship points to win the Wuhan Open on Saturday.

After falling in the finals of Eastbourne and the US Open, the Swiss and Italian needed five championship points to claim their first title as a team, edging No. 8 seeds Cara Black and Caroline Garcia 6-4, 5-7, [12-10].

Hingis has now won 39 WTA doubles championships with 15 different partners, including fellow Hall-of-Famers Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, Lindsay Davenport, Jana Novotna, Natasha Zvereva and Gigi Fernandez.

The Mylan WTT Finals MVP won the Miami Open with Sabine Lisicki earlier this season. In Pennetta, however, Hingis has a partner who could help her clinch a berth at the prestigious WTA Finals in Singapore Oct. 20-26.

Though they have played only five events since joining forces in June, Hingis and Pennetta are battling Anastasia Rodionova of the Kastles and 2013 Washington substitute Alla Kudryavtseva for the eighth and final spot at the year-end championships.

Rodionova and Kudryavtseva lead Hingis and Pennetta by 409 ranking points entering this week's China Open in Beijing, where both teams are in action and 1,000 points will go to the champions.

In their only meeting, Hingis and Pennetta defeated Rodionova and Kudryavtseva 4-6, 6-2, [10-6] at the Rogers Cup on Aug. 5. Follow each match on their road to Singapore via the Kastle Tracker at WashingtonKastles.com.

Teaming for the first time in Wuhan, Black and Garcia lost the opening set in the second round, quarterfinals and semifinals.

Hingis and Pennetta, on the other hand, did not drop a set en route to the final, highlighted by a 6-4, 6-4 semifinal win over No. 3 seeds Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears of the Springfield Lasers.

The No. 6 seeds continued rolling in the final, opening up a 6-4, 5-3 advantage. But Black and Garcia saved four championship points in the second set: two on put-away volleys by Black and two on errors by Pennetta.

Just as they'd done three times before, the Zimbabwean and Frenchwoman rallied to force a match tiebreak.

Hingis and Pennetta took their first lead of the tiebreak at 8-7 before Garcia hit two service winners to give her team a championship point. Though she and Black did not convert, they earned a second championship point when Pennetta missed a forehand long at 9-9.

The Italian atoned for that mistake by lobbing a volley over Black's head and inside the baseline for a winner, evening the tiebreak at 10-10. Pennetta then dipped a forehand return that Black popped up and out.

More than 30 minutes after their first match point, Hingis and Pennetta had a fifth chance to capture the championship at 11-10. With Hingis serving, she and Pennetta sealed their first team title when Black chipped her backhand return into the net.

Paes Captures Doubles Title for 18th Straight Season

Kastles Captain and Marcin Matkowski Win 1st Event as Team

Having helped the Kastles set a major U.S. pro sports record with 34 straight wins, Leander Paes extended another impressive streak on Sunday.

Paes and Marcin Matkowski won the Malaysian Open to give the Kastles captain at least one championship in each of the last 18 seasons. Paes claimed his 54th men's doubles title overall when he and Matkowski defeated No. 2 seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers 3-6, 7-6(5), [10-5].

Paes and Matkowski were playing their first tournament as a team after facing off 17 times on the ATP World Tour (Paes leads the head-to-head 9-8).

While Paes has played with 97 different men's partners over the course of his career, Matkowski has paired predominantly with Polish countryman Mariusz Fyrstenberg. Prior to the 2014 Malaysian Open, Matkowski had won 15 ATP titles in 38 finals -- all alongside Fyrstenberg.

When it comes to brand-new partners, Matkowski couldn't have done better than Paes. The Indian has now won eight tour-level titles with a first-time teammate.

En route to the final, Paes and Matkowski defeated 2010 Wimbledon and 2011 US Open champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner 6-2, 6-7(5), [10-6]. Though the No. 4 seeds failed to break Murray and Peers, they won back-to-back tiebreakers to clinch the championship.

This week, Paes has the opportunity to win his ninth title with a new partner. Paes and Rohan Bopanna are making their tournament debut at the Japan Open in Tokyo after playing three Davis Cup matches together.

LEANDER PAES MEN'S DOUBLES TITLES BY YEAR

Year Tournaments

2014 Kuala Lumpur

2013 Winston-Salem, US Open

2012 Chennai, Australian Open, Miami, Shanghai

2011 Chennai, Miami, Cincinnati

2010 Miami, Shanghai

2009 French Open, US Open

2008 Bangkok

2007 Rotterdam, Indian Wells

2006 's-Hertogenbosch, US Open

2005 Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Bangkok

2004 Halle, Gstaad, Toronto, Delray Beach

2003 Dubai, Delray Beach, Gstaad

2002 Chennai, Mallorca

2001 Atlanta, Houston, French Open, Cincinnati

2000 Orlando, Tokyo

1999 Chennai, French Open, 's-Hertogen., Wimbledon, Newport

1998 Doha, Dubai, Chennai, Rome, Shanghai, Paris

1997 Chennai, Prague, Montreal, New Haven, Beijing, Singapore

LEANDER PAES MEN'S DOUBLES TITLES BY PARTNER

Partner Titles Years

Mahesh Bhupathi 26 1997-2002, 2004, 2011

Radek Stepanek* 5 2004, 2012 -2013

Lukas Dlouhy 4 2008-2010

Martin Damm 4 2006-2007

David Rikl 4 2003-2004

Nenad Zimonjic* 3 2003, 2005

Jan Siemerink* 2 1999-2000

Marcin Matkowski* 1 2014

Daniel Nestor 1 2013

Janko Tipsarevic* 1 2012

Jurgen Melzer* 1 2010

Paul Hanley* 1 2005

Wayne Arthurs* 1 1999

* Won first ATP World Tour event as a team.

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