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| Congratulations to the WTT Eastern Conference Champions |
Last night's
WTT Eastern Conference Championship won't soon be forgotten by the jubilant crowd at Kastles Stadium/Charles E. Smith Center. Not only did the
Washington Kastles advance to their
fourth straight league finals, with a thrilling 21-16 win over the
Philadelphia Freedoms - They also bid farewell to a living legend. To everyone's surprise (and disappointment) last night's victory was
Bobby Reynolds'
final home game for the Kastles: Reynolds is retiring after next Sunday's WTT Finals. Kastles owner
Mark Ein orchestrated a warm send-off for the 2010 Mylan WTT Rookie of the Year and 2012 WTT Male MVP.
Reynolds' emotional good-bye capped a wonderful
individual performance for the dynamic right-hander. He got things started with an emphatic 5-3 win in Men's Singles; then wrapped things up with a 1-0 Men's Doubles clincher in OT (with partner
Leander Paes.) In between,
Martina Hingis rallied from a 5-2 loss to Philly's
Taylor Townsend in Women's Singles to back-to-back Doubles victories. First, she paired up with Paes to win Mixed Doubles 5-2,; then she teamed up with
Anastasia Rodionova to win a crazy (ultimately one-sided) Women's Doubles over Townsend and
Liezel Huber, who had to leave with a head injury early in the fourth set. By the time Philly's
Frank Dancevic &
Marcelo Melo took the court for the fifth and deciding set, Washington already led 17-11. Dancevic & Melo won the final set 5-3, but couldn't find an answer to Paes & Reynolds in overtime.
With last night's victory, Washington will try for a rare four-peat on Sunday afternoon at Mediacom Stadium at the Cooper Tennis Complex vs. the
Springfield Lasers. The Lasers upset the
San Diego Aviators 22-17, stunning the world's #1 men's doubles team
Bob & Mike Bryan 5-3 in the final set, to set-up a rematch of last year's championship (won by the Kastles, 25-12
in Washington.)
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| Bobby Reynolds put Washington up early, 5-3 |
I'm not sure where things stand with the
Southwest Waterfront redevelopment; but I'd love to see at
least one more Kastles' season at GW's Charles E. Smith Center. 2014 was definitely... one for the books. Go Kastles! I'm already looking forward to another
banner celebration next summer.
Click here for last night's box score.
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| Anastasia Rodionova & Martina Hingis (r) talk strategy |
