For Venus Williams, Kastles teammates age just a number
WASHINGTON – A current Wimbledon champion and Venus Williams, who won Wimbledon five times, couldn't stop a sharpshooting team from Austin in the Washington Kastles' home opener Tuesday.
Despite delivering the most exciting match of the night, Williams and current Wimbledon mixed doubles champion Leander Paes fell to the Austin Aces' Alla Kudryavtseva and Teymuraz Gabashvili 5-3, taking the final match score to 22-17. The Kastles clocked just their third home loss in the past 34 matches in front of a crowd of 3,225.
"The other team, they couldn't miss," Williams said. "They had the luck, but if we see them again, we feel like we'll get them."
Williams beat Austin's Nicole Gibbs 5-3 in 24 minutes in the women's singles portion of the night, after losing the women's doubles portion with partner Anastasia Rodionova to Gibbs and Kudryavtseva 5-1.
She started off slow against Gibbs before settling into her game at net, unleashing her serve and locking in to win eight of the final nine points of the game, earning roars from the crowd with each of her two aces.
Williams' singles match brought the total score to 17-14 Austin before she and Paes lost.
"Once I got a little close, 3-2, 3-3, I started to be a little more inward, the way I am in matches outside of team tennis," Williams said. "You feel like you're here to entertain, but you're also here to win so you have to find that focus."
Paes also lost his doubles match with partner Denis Kudla 5-3 to Gabashvili and Jarmere Jenkins.
Like Williams, who lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon but stayed the fortnight to watch sister Serena take home the singles championship Saturday, Paes had just returned from the All England Club. He won the mixed doubles championship Sunday with Kastles teammate Martina Hingis.
Both veterans, Williams, 35, in her fifth season with the Kastles and Paes, 42, in his seventh, played through jet lag and the menagerie of discomforts that accompany a cross-Atlantic flight and were clear crowd favorites.
But Williams said she couldn't take just six hours to adjust, like she used to, and before the match, age was clearly on the Kastles' mind.
Rodionova cracked an age joke after missing a return in warm-ups, and Williams expressed awe at Paes' win at Wimbledon.
"I keep saying, he turned back the clock, he's getting younger instead of older," Williams said. "It's amazing, what he's accomplished his whole career."
This season the Kastles (1-1) are supplementing their superstar veteran lineup with some American upstarts. Both Denis Kudla, 22, the last American man standing at Wimbledon before a fourth-round loss sent him home, and Madison Brengle, 25, are in their first season with the Kastles.
A Washington-area native, Kudla – and the big serve that helped him beat Austin's Gabashvili 5-4 in the men's singles portion -- earned some of the crowd's loudest cheers.
"It's unbelievable how many big points there are here, how many pressure points, and starting the games off really fast," Kudla said. "I think that's what team tennis so different from the tour, and my teammates really helped me manage my emotions."
"And Leander, the guy is so good he's a joke. It's a privilege to be able to play doubles with him, to be on the same court as him. I couldn't ask for a better teammate."
Washington plays its next home match against San Diego on Thursday. Serena Williams makes her home debut with the team on July 21.
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