Venus Williams and the Washington Kastles showed her former team exactly what it was missing - and did so in thrilling fashion. It took a Supertiebreaker to decide it, but Williams led the Kastles to an exciting come-from-behind victory over the Philadelphia Freedoms 21-20 on Thursday night to extend their winning streak to three matches.
In a dramatic turn of events, Williams and mixed doubles partner Leander Paes let four match points and a 4-3 lead in the last set slip away to Prakash Amritraj and Courtney Nagle in the match's deciding fifth set before they charged back in the Supertiebreaker, winning 7-3 to give Williams a victory against her old squad.
With the win, the Kastles moved to 3-1 on the season and have swept the two early season contests against Philadelphia. The win moved the Kastles into a tie for the Eastern Conference lead with the New York Sportimes, who beat the Boston Lobsters 21-20 when Robert Kendrick and Jesse Witten beat James Blake and Eric Butorac 7-6 in a thrilling Supertiebreaker decided on the last point of the match. The loss dropped the Freedoms to 1-2.
The Freedoms came out of the blocks strong and focused on avenging Tuesday night's loss in Washington as Armitraj and Ramon Delgado defeated Bobby Reynolds and Paes 5-2 on a very slow court that clearly favored the home team's style of play.
The Freedoms then carried the momentum into the next set as Nagle and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn took a quick 4-1 lead against Williams and Kastles teammate Rennae Stubbs in women's doubles. Fortunately, the Kastles were able to recover much of the lost ground to even the score at four all before losing 5-4 in a tiebreaker.
Bobby Reynolds, who set the tone for the team's past two victories, was counted on this time to reverse his team's fortunes and he didn't let them down. Reynolds pulled away from Philadelphia's Ramon Delgado at 3-3 in men's singles to win 5-3 in a very tight and critical set.
After halftime, Venus, the second-ranked women's singles player in the world, took center stage with her team down 13-11. Williams provided crucial momentum, taking care of young star Lertcheewakarn in women's singles by a score of 5-2 and giving the Kastles their first lead of the match at 16-15.
The last set looked lopsided on paper with the Kastles fielding two future Hall of Famers in Venus Williams and Leander Paes against the Freedoms' Nagle and Armitraj but the Philly squad was motivated by the challenge. The teams stayed even until the middle of the set when the Kastles broke Nagle to go up 4-3 and then had 3 match points with Williams serving at 3-1. The Freedoms dug deep and came back to win the game and send the set to a tiebreaker. The Kastles saved one set point at 3-4 on Venus's serve to reach 4-4. On the deciding point of the tiebreaker and the match, Nagle stabbed a return on a strong Venus serve to set up a routine Paes overhead that Nagle somehow lunged to reach and lob back to Paes who missed a backhand overhead to send the match to a Supertiebreaker. The Freedoms fans and bench went crazy as their team was still alive, and Nagle and Armitraj fed on that energy as they played some great points to stay close at 3-3. At this point, the superior talent and experience of the Kastles' Williams and Paes took over as they won the last 4 points of the match with some spectacular shot making to win the Supertiebreaker 7-3. As their Kastles' teammate Stubbs said, "In crunch time, you just saw why they win Grand Slam titles."
The Kastles return to the court again Friday as Wimbledon champion Serena Williams makes her 2010 Kastles debut where she will lead Washington to face Martina Hingis and the New York Buzz. The Kastles downed the Buzz on Wednesday night in Washington 25-15.
The team then travels with Venus Williams to St. Louis to take on Lindsay Davenport and the St. Louis Aces on Saturday before returning home to Kastles Stadium on Monday, July 12 when they'll face Hingis and the Buzz once more. Tickets are available but going fast. To purchase, call Ticketmaster today at 202-397-7328 or visit them on the web at ticketmaster.com.
(Source)
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Serena Williams To Team Up With First Lady Michelle Obama
On July 13th, First Lady Michelle Obama will launch the new LetsMove! website by hosting a live chat on AOL Health. Questions for Mrs. Obama can be in advance of the chat via askmichelleobama@aol.com, and also during the live event. The web chat will be streamed live on www.LetsMove.gov and AOL at 10:00 AM EDT.
On July 14th Wimbledon Champion Serena Williams will participate with the First Lady and D.C. area kids in a live interactive tennis session on the South Lawn of the White House as part of the First Lady’s initiative to help keep America’s youth active and healthy.
**Update** Serena was scheduled to play at Kastles Stadium Later in the day, where all eyes were eager to see if she could have duplicated her big sister Venus (we think she could have) by helping the Washington Kastles get, yet another, home win when they face the Kansas City Explorers. Due to a foot injury Serena sustained last week she will be unable to play.
In a statement earlier today Williams says, “I'm very disappointed that I won't be able to play in the WTT matches this season. It is always such a fun experience and I love interacting with the fans in the cities that I don't often have the opportunity to play in during the rest of the year."
In addition to the July 14th date, Williams was also scheduled to play for the Kastles in Philadelphia (July 13), and New York (July 15).
Kastles owner Mark Ein tells fans, “We are very sorry that our Kastles teammate Serena Williams has an injury and won’t be able to play this season. She has been an important part of our team, both on and off the court, and we wish her well for a speedy recovery. Our team is filled with talent and experience as exhibited by our strong start and 5-1, and each member of the squad remains committed to keeping the WTT crown in Washington, D.C. The crowds at Kastles Stadium have been full, loud and passionate this season and we know we can rely on that kind of home court advantage for our last five home matches.”
Ein was criticized earlier today by sports talk show host Tony Kornheiser for inviting him to a Kastles game where, according to Kornheiser, he couldn't pick the date he wanted to attend a scheduled match. "I'm not available anyway", Kornheiser said.
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