Sports stats

WTT Washington Kastles

Kastles Honored on US Open Stadium Court Tonight

August 30, 2011 - World TeamTennis (WTT)
Washington Kastles News Release


On Tuesday night, the Washington Kastles will be honored for their 2011 World Team Tennis Championship at the US Open on Arthur Ashe Stadium Court. Billie Jean King will present the Kastles and owner Mark Ein with the King Trophy immediately following the conclusion of the 7:00 p.m. match between Rafael Nadal and Andrey Golubev and before the Kastles own Serena Williams plays her first round match against Boyana Jovanovski.

Ein will be joined on-court by the Kastles team - Coach Murphy Jensen, Serena and Venus Williams, Leander Paes, Rennae Stubbs, Bobby Reynolds, and Arina Rodionova.

"The 2011 season was filled with so many indelible memories and having our franchise and players honored at night at the US Open on Ashe Stadium Court adds another incredible one to the books," said Kastles owner Mark Ein. "The team has been in constant touch since the season ended and having the chance to reunite with everyone in person makes it that much sweeter."

Kastles Players at the US Open

The 2011 US Open promises to be a very exciting one and the Kastles are well represented in every draw with a number of legitimate title shots.

Coming off the perfect championship season, the arrival of this year's US Open gives Kastles fans a renewed chance to see virtually all of their favorite Kastles players, including Venus and Serena Williams, Bobby Reynolds, Rennae Stubbs and Leander Paes do battle at Flushing Meadows.

Throughout the fortnight of tennis, we'll be sending you updates on the progress of Kastles' players as they progress through the tournament. The Open started on Monday morning at the USTA Billy Jean King National Tennis Center.

Venus Williams got the tournament's first night session off to a rousing start with a relatively routine 6-4, 6-3 win over Vesna Dolonts, in which she seemed to get stronger as the match wore on. After trading first set service breaks with Dolonts mid-way through the first set, Venus broke Dolonts at 5-4 to seize the first set, and then broke her again to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the second.

Venus slammed a service winner into the corner to ice the win, and was all smiles as she approached the net for the post-match handshake. After the match, she told Pam Shriver that "it was great to be back in New York."

"My serve is a huge part of my game," she said. "My game is fueled by my serve. And of course, I like to follow it up with aggressive play. And it's great to see those balls land in."

After beating Dolonts, Venus' path to the semifinals will likely include matches against #22 seed, Sabine Lisicki, #14 seed Dominika Cibulkova, world #2 Vera Zvonereva, and probably either #9 seed Sam Stosur or #8 seed Marion Bartoli.

Serena, who is on the opposite side of the draw from her sister and will play the second feature match Tuesday night on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, also faces a treacherous path to the final four, with a potential matchup against the #4 seed and ex-Kastles teammate Victoria Azarenka looming in what will likely be an Arthur Ashe night session match in the 3rd round. After retiring from the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati due to a swollen toe nearly two weeks ago, Serena will likely use her first match against Boyana Jovanovski, a 19-year-old Serb, to work off the rust and tune up for the more intense competition to come.

Other than Azarenka, Serena also has #1 seed Caroline Wozniacki on her side of the draw. No one is counting Wozniacki out, but if Serena gets by Azarenka, she'll be the odds-on favorite to make it to the final.

Veteran Kastles' doubles specialist, Rennae Stubbs will play in both the mixed and women's doubles tournaments at the Open. Stubbs and countrywoman Casey Dellacqua will face Ayumi Morita and Sorana Cirstea in the first round, likely on Wednesday or Thursday.The mixed doubles draw will come out shortly.

On the men's side, Kastles' stalwart Bobby Reynolds qualified for the main draw of the Open by besting a tough field to win the U.S. Open qualifying playoff held at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland two weekends ago.

Reynolds has a tough but winnable first round match against the 29-year-old Argentine, David Nalbandian, who has shown flashes of brilliance throughout his career reaching #3 in the world, but has fallen to #76 in the latest ATP rankings. The two have played just once before- an easy win for Nalbandian on a hard court in Sweden in 2008 when he was top 10 in the world.

If Reynolds can beat Nalbandian, and then his likely second round opponent, Ivan Ljubicic, he will likely face Nadal, who he faced in the first round at the Open in 2005, in the 3rd round. Reynolds will face Nalbandian in the final afternoon match of the day on Court #17.

Kastles doubles star, Leander Paes and partner Mahesh Bhupathi are seeded #4 in the doubles draw and have an excellent chance to win the tournament coming off a big tournament win in Cincinnati two weeks ago. They have a difficult first round match against the talented Ukrainian, Alexander Dolgopolov, and his partner, Albert Ramos, but will still enter that match as prohibitive favorites. The match will be final contest of the afternoon session Tuesday on court 4.

The most likely threat that could prevent Paes and Bhupathi from a potential final against the Bryan Brothers (who they defeated in Cincinnati) is the tournament's number 2 seed, Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor. But Paes and Bhpathi have beaten Nestor/Mimyi all three times they have played this year.

Paes has won the U.S. Open doubles title twice- on both occasions with Czech partners- in 2009 with Lukas Dlouhy, and in 2006 with Martin Damm. Paes and Bhupathi teamed up to reach the final four of the Open in '97 and again in '98, and then lost in the final in '99. Paes was also a finalist with different partners in 2004 and 2008, and has been a consistent threat to win the Open doubles title for more than a decade. Fresh off a perfect season with the Kastles, Paes will look to continue those winning ways at Flushing Meadows.

Paes, who will also compete in the mixed double tournament, could end up facing Kastles teammate, Bobby Reynolds, if he and partner Travis Parrott (who played for the New York Sportimes) can advance to the third round. In the first round, Bobby and Travis face James Cerretani and Philipp Marx with the winner likely playing the 5th seeded "Indo-Pak Express" of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.

All in all, it should be a memorable US Open and the Kastles look to be in the thick of it until the very end.

Women's Singles

Serena Williams - #28 Seed

Venus Williams - unseeded

Men's Singles

Bobby Reynolds - unseeded

Women's Doubles

Rennae Stubbs - unseeded

Men's Doubles

Bobby Reynolds - unseeded

Leander Paes - #4 Seed

Mixed Doubles

2011 US Open Mixed Doubles draw will be released this week.

Agassi & Sampras Coming to Verizon Center - VIP Packages Available

On September 23rd tennis legends Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Michael Chang will return to the tennis court at the Verizon Center in the HSBC Tennis Cup as part of the 2011 Champions Series Tennis Circuit. The Kastles, along with Inside Out Sports and Larry Magid Entertainment, are bringing the unique event to Washington, D.C.

The tournament will feature four champions paired off in one-set semi-finals competing for ranking points, culminating with the winners contending for the title in an eight-game pro-set championship match.

Various VIP packages are available on Ticketmaster! Packages include: a small one hour group tennis clinic with either Agassi/Courier or Sampras/Chang; a backstage chance to meet all four of the players; a pre-match hospitality event featuring a Q&A with all of the players. These packages are priced from $250 to $1,500 and each comes with lots of other benefits that you can find at Champions Series Tennis.

Don't miss this special opportunity to meet or even play with some of the greatest players in history. The champions will only be in town for one night so be sure to visit Ticketmaster.com and get your tickets today to enjoy the excitement. For more information on the event, please visit the Champions Series web site or call us at 202-4-TENNIS (483-6647).



World TeamTennis Stories from August 30, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central