By Tom Squitieri
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 11, 2013) The Mylan World TeamTennis champions Washington Kastles lost their first home match in more than two years Thursday, falling to the Springfield Lasers 22-15 in front of the third straight capacity crowd at Kastles Stadium at The Wharf.
Washington entered Thursday’s match 16-0 all-time since moving to their Southwest Waterfront venue in 2011, but as the Kastles have now started a new streak: losing. It was the second straight loss for the Kastles, who on Tuesday set a U.S. professional sports records with 34 straight wins.
For the second straight night, Washington won the first set, with Kevin Anderson beating former world number one Andy Roddick in a battle of big servers 5-2. But as was the case against the Texas Wild on Wednesday, Washington lost the final four sets to jetison the match. – including a nail-biting final set loss of 5-4 in men’s doubles.
Roddick, a part owner of the WTT, joked earlier in the week that he hoped Washington would be undefeated when the two teams met Thursday so Springfield could end the streak. He said before that match that he was “pissed” that had lost on Wednesday.
“The Kastles have been the ones creating the story lines for World TeamTennis the last couple of years,” Roddick said. “I was pissed the streak ended last night. There are few things I can get up for anymore, so that was disappointing.”
Kastles coach Murphy Jensen said that team has a target on them, with every opponent playing their very best to defeat them. He said the Kastles are still learning to integrate the new members of the team and that he expects the Kastles to resume winning very soon. And he reminded anyone who asked that the Kastles dropped their first four matches before winning thei first WTT championship in 2009.
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