FRIDAY, JULY 17 – The Washington Kastles versus the New York Sportimes may not be the Yankees v. Red Sox, but on Thursday night in DC, the clash brought out its own version of Don Zimmer against Pedro Martinez.
Believe it or not, the conflict involved the usually volcanic John McEnroe (remember when he cursed out Mashona Washington in WTT last year?), the widely disliked Leander Paes of India (who was fired by his own Davis Cup players when he was captain), the temperamental Robert Kendrick (who once tore his shirt in half on court after losing a junior match) and the not-usually-angry Scott Oudsema.
With the Kastles’ Paes and Oudsema leading McEnroe and Kendrick 4-3, Paes nailed Kendrick in the chin with a volley, and then Kendrick hit Paes, who was not the receiver, with a first serve a few points later. McEnroe and New York coach Chuck Adams (the father of Ashley Harkleroad’s child) crossed the net to yell at Paes, and received a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Kastles’ Olga Puchkova screamed at Kendrick, who according to a Yahoo report then threw the B-word at her. Some fans observed that McEnroe was actually playing the role of peacemaker. A Yahoo report claimed that Kastles coach Murphy Jensen was furious with the chair umpire for losing control of the match.
“Basically, it was a great match, probably one of the greatest World Team Tennis match ever played, maybe the greatest,” Sportimes owner Claude Okin told the Washington Post. “All in all, I thought it was a great night. But the incident? Paes went at Kendrick, intentionally hit him with the ball pretty much as hard as he could, and that’s scary. You can hurt somebody that way. Our coach and players defended their teammate verbally, and then Kendrick went back at Leander with his response, and it’s what it is, but it started with Leander going at Robert. We have no idea why he did. Leander said he was gonna do that, he said ‘Somebody’s gonna get hurt out there,’ and then he hit him. “So we went a little crazy, because we just don’t see that as being a necessary part of the game. But otherwise, by the end of the match, John spoke to Leander, Robert and Leander shook hands at the net, embraced each other, and everybody involved in both teams, from coaches to players to owners, had hugs and handshakes.”
Andy Roddick pulled out of Indianapolis citing a right hip flexor injury.…Five Italian players suspended and/or fined for minor gambling infractions have filed a lawsuit against the ATP, including Federico Luzzi, Giorgio Galimberti, Alessio DiMauro, Potito Starace and Daniele Bracciali… Prague winners were Timea Bacsinszky, Francesca Schiavone, Iveta Benesova and Sybille Bammer….Swedish Open winners were Andreas Vinciguerra, Robin Soderling,
Juan Monaco (who won when Fernando Verdasco retired) and Tommy Robredo…. Fabio Fognini upset Nikolay Davydenko in Stuttgart and Victor Hanescu also won….Winners in Palermo were Flavia Pennetta and Sara Errani.
