WTT Washington Kastles

Kastles Down Reigning WTT Champion Breakers, 22-18

Published on July 19, 2018 under World TeamTennis (WTT)
Washington Kastles News Release


A streak is starting in Washington. The Kastles extended their 2018 winning streak with a hot win over the reigning WTT champions Orange County Breakers last night, 22-18. After winning their opening two matches of the season against the New York Empire, the Kastles are now 3-0 and tied for first place with the Philadelphia Freedoms in the World TeamTennis standings, presented by Geico.

The Kastles got down to business the minute they stepped on the court. The team's newest roster player Robert Lindstedt and Kastles sub Christina McHale led off in mixed doubles against Andreja Klepac and Marcelo Demoliner. McHale, who has been a highly-effective substitute for Wimbledon Mixed Doubles champion Nicole Melichar, who joins the team tonight, pounded returns, punished volleys and generally moved in perfect synchronicity with Lindstedt around the court. For his part, Lindstedt, a Grand Slam champion and former world #3 doubles player, thumped serve after serve and owned the net that left the WTT champs with little they could do.

Lindstedt opened the set by holding at love with an ace. In the next game, Demoliner looked as if they would hold just as easily jumping to a quick 3-0 lead, but the turning point in the set appeared to hinge on Demoliner's first game point. Lindstedt made the return and hit a volley winner that barely clipped the line. Klepac challenged the call, but Hawk-Eye confirmed it was good. On the very next point, Demoliner double faulted and the Kastles won the next two points to score the first break of the set.

The Breakers managed to break McHale's serve in the next game, but the Kastles promptly fired back, thereafter. At 2-all in the game, McHale got a short ball and raced up and punished it to earn another breakpoint. Lindstedt consolidated the game with a ferocious forehand to push the Kastles ahead 3-1. Lindstedt found himself in trouble in his next service game, falling behind 1-3 in the score. But McHale bailed the team out with a backhand volley winner on the first break point and hit a pivotal forehand volley in the next point to force a decider. Lindstedt then took it from there with a gigantic serve to advance the Kastles a game.

Demoliner held his serve the second time around and earned two breakpoints on McHale's serve in the next game. But down 2-3, McHale saved the first with a second serve that Demoliner missed and captured the set with an ace past Klepac on the decider (that was also confirmed by Hawk-Eye) to give Washington a 5-2 lead to start the night.

The Kastles knew ahead of time that they would likely face their hardest competition in women's doubles. Christina McHale and Madison Brengle are very strong competitors, but they were up against Andreja Klepac and Yanina Wickmayer, the top women's doubles team last season, and key to the Breakers winning the championship. Klepac won Women's MVP and Wickmayer won Rookie of the Year.

The style of play between the teams was clearly contrasting. Brengle is one of the toughest singles players in the league, in large part, due to the speed of her feet and the power and precision of her flat groundstrokes. It's no secret she likes playing from the baseline and in doubles, favors playing one player up at net and the other in the back court, which is a very effective style of play, particularly in the women's game. The Breakers, on the other hand, prefer to smother the net. They rush forward every opportunity they get and poach whenever possible.

Both strategies were effective. The score was very close the first four games. But in the fourth game on Brengle's serve, the Breakers, up 2-1, began to increase their intensity at the net. They earned two breakpoints on Brengle's serve, but the Kastle didn't buckle. Serving down 2-3, she countered by almost single-handedly saving the first breakpoint and won the decider unleashing a series ofbrutal groundstrokes to tie the set score, 2-2. Though the Kastles were able to prevent this first break opportunity, Klepac and Wickmayer's persistent assault on the net began to push Brengle and McHale further and further back in the court, giving the Breakers room to hit their targets.

After Klepac held serve to go up 3-2 in the set, the turning point for the Kastles came on McHale's serve in the next game. The Breakers pushed the Kastles to 2-all, at which point Coach Murphy Jensen called a timeout. When play resumed, McHale won the next point, but then double-faulted to bring on a decider, which slipped away from the Kastles with a backhand wide to gave the Breakers a 4-2 lead in the set. Wickmayer then followed with a routine hold to close out the Kastles and tie the score for the Breakers, 7-7.

Men's doubles followed featuring Robert Lindstedt and Kastles all-star Frances Tiafoe against Marcelo Demoliner and Evan King, who subbed for Breakers' roster player Stephane Robert.

After routine holds from both teams to open the set 1-1, the Kastles suddenly found themselves down 0-3 on Tiafoe's serve. A break of serve in men's doubles frequently costs a set and with the match score tied at 8-8, the consequences of such a loss could have been catastrophic. At this point, the Breakers had four break opportunities. The Kastles managed to save the first two, but the prospect of saving three, let alone four appeared remote. Then at 2-3, Tiafoe hit his first unreturnable serve of the match to force a decider. He saved the last one with a huge first serve and smash combination, which critically returned the lead to Washington.

The Kastles earned their first breakpoint on King's serve in the next game on a deciding point, but were unable to convert it and the Breakers tied the match again. Back and forth, both teams progressed through the set, getting looks at breakpoints here and there, but the serving teams prevailed at, 9-9, 10-10. Since Kastles served first, the Breakers were forced to play catch-up to keep the score even. But after King held to level the score at 4-4, the Breakers' got their first chance to get ahead by taking the set in a tiebreaker.

Orange County's prospects were diminished, however, when Demoliner double-faulted, down 1-2, to give Tiafoe a chance to serve out the set. That's exactly what he did. In two lethal swings, the Kastle cranked two aces to close out the set, 5-4(1), and give the team the lead at halftime, 12-11.

If last night's match was Military Night at Kastles Stadium, then the most significant battle of the evening was the women's singles clash between Kastles all-star Madison Brengle and Breakers MVP Yanina Wickmayer. Both players brought precise and powerful shotmaking to this showdown.

Brengle broke out her weapons on the very first ball. Almost instantly it seemed, she earned double break points on Wickmayer's serve. Though the Breaker ultimately held, Brengle made her work hard for it, establishing a mindset that Wickmayer would have to take on uncomfortable risks to win her serve. Brengle, by comparison, held her first service game effortlessly. Back and forth, she ran to all corners of the court, arriving to the ball in near perfect balance, enabling her to punish the ball with her two-handed backhand and seamlessly alternate between her deadly topspin and forehands drives.

While Brengle appeared to be the dominant player, the Kastle didn't break ahead in the score until late in the set. Similar to men's doubles, the ladies traded tense service games by gutting out some long and impressive baseline rallies. The turning point in the matchup occurred after Brengle held, down 2-3 in the set, to tie the set and take back the lead for Washington, 15-14.

On Wickmayer's serve in the next game, Brengle found her way to 2-all. When she won the next point to earn two break chances, the fans inside Kastles Stadium began chanting, "Maddy! Maddy! Maddy!" When she won the next point to go up 4-3 in the set and give the Kastles their first two-game lead since the second set, the whole Stadium sprang to its feet and echoed their earlier refrain, "Maddy! Maddy! Maddy!"

Turbocharged by the energy inside Kastles Stadium, Brengle raced off to a 3-0 lead in what would be the final game of the set. Wickmayer pushed her to 3-2, but the Kastle would not be broken. Brengle concentrated all her effort on the next point, and after another tense baseline rally, drew a set-winning error to secure the Kastles lead heading into the final set of the night.

It was now Frances Tiafoe's turn to convert the win in men's singles against Evan King. In almost every way, Tiafoe was by far the favorite to win this match. His ranking, his top-10 wins, his hometown crowd behind him, and the 17-14 lead he inherited from his teammates. But in his previous match against the Empire, Frances faced a similar opponent and after comfortably earning several match points, suddenly saw them slipping away. Tiafoe claimed his first win of the season in a stressful Supertiebreaker. He didn't want a repeat of the same episode. King had a similar plan to do so.

King is a team player and knows how to use the energy of a crowd (positive and negative) to fuel his game. He is best known for being the most successful men's tennis player in the history of the University of Michigan. King holds the record for most combined career men's singles and doubles wins at Michigan and was a three-time ITA All-American, two-time Big Ten Athlete of the Year, and a four-time All-Big Ten. And last night he rose to the occasion.

After trading quick service holds to open the set, King broke Frances on a deciding a point to go up 2-1 and inch the Breakers a game closer to a comeback, 18-16. Determined not to let another match go down to the wire, Tiafoe upped his shotmaking in the next game and promptly broke back to tie the set and restore the Kastles lead. But King wouldn't go away. He persisted to fight Frances tooth and nail, scrambling quick and constructing diverse rallies with topspin and slice.

Tiafoe was up to the challenge, however, and hit the shots he needed to extend his team's lead further to 20-16. Returning up 3-2, he earned a breakpoint on King's serve on a decider. If he captured it, Tiafoe would get a chance to serve out the set and match, but the Breaker denied Frances this easy finish. King held and continued to apply pressure. But if the Kastle felt any, you would have never known it. At 3-3, he held at love to put victory a game within reach. But King wouldn't relent. He held to force a fifth-set tiebreaker and put the Breakers within striking distance of an epic comeback.

Frances reassured his fans by winning both his first service points to start the breaker, then stole any early mini-break on King's serve to take a 3-1 lead. With two service points on his racquet, Tiafoe won the first to earn his first match point at 4-2. It ultimately took two tries for Frances to putaway King. He sealed victory on the next point, 5-3, after an extended rally on King's serve. Tiafoe got a short ball and promptly charged in and closed out the match, 22-18.

The Kastles are now 3-0 to start the season and are tied for 1st place with the Philadelphia Freedoms. The Kastles play again tonight against the 2016 WTT champs San Diego Aviators.

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World TeamTennis Stories from July 19, 2018


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