Washington heading to playoffs on Friday
Doubles standout Leander Paes calls the Washington Kastles “stickier” than in previous seasons. Paes, from India, was speaking of the cohesion that has pushed the Kastles to the top of the World TeamTennis Eastern Conference.
But on Thursday night at Kastles Stadium at the Wharf, the adjective also applied to the weather as temperatures pushed toward triple digits. Still, an enthusiastic crowd gave the Kastles a sweaty sendoff to the blink-and-you-might-miss-it regular season, which included 14 matches in 18 hectic July days.
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With Thursday’s 25-11 sweep of the Philadelphia Freedoms, Washington (14-0) became the first team since the 1994 Newport Beach Dukes (now the Breakers) to go undefeated in the regular season.
Now it is onto the playoffs, and in typical WTT fashion, it is a weekend affair. The Kastles play Friday night in the semifinals in Charleston, S.C., with a berth at stake in the championship match Sunday at 5 p.m.
In its fourth year in existence, Washington has a chance to win its second WTT title in three years. It also can make history. In the 36-year league, no team has claimed the championship with a perfect record.
“I never went into a season thinking we’d never lose a match,” Kastles owner Mark Ein said before Thursday’s match. “When you look at how close we’ve been on so many occasions — a point here, a point there, and it would be very different.”
Washington’s most reliable duo, the mixed doubles team of the 38-year-old Paes and 40-year-old Rennae Stubbs, got Washington off to a fast start Thursday night with a 5-2 victory. Paes and Stubbs have combined for a team-best 11-3 record and a 65-43 advantage in games won.
In the women’s doubles that followed, Stubbs combined with Arina Rodionova for a 5-1 victory over Liga Dekmeijere and Ellicott City native Beatrice Capra, who will play this fall at Duke.
In her rookie season in WTT, the 21-year-old Rodionova has quickly become a fan favorite with her exuberance, expressiveness, scrambling baseline game and wicked backhand, earning the nickname “Hot Rod.” Against Capra in women’s singles, she broke in the opening game on her way to a 5-3 victory.
“She’s our little wild card, our hidden jewel,” coach Murphy Jensen said of Radionova, a Russian who spells Williams sisters Serena and Venus. “She is the girl that’s going to make all the difference to really take this team to another championship.”
Bobby Reynolds combined with Paes for a 5-3 win in men’s doubles, then wrapped up the night with a high-spirited 5-2 victory over hot-tempered Brendan Evans. Reynolds closed the regular season with a 9-5 record in singles and a 67-48 edge in games.
