really, who knew such a thing existed … but apparently Washington now has a franchise (the “Kastles” annoyingly enough) in the three decade old “world team tennis” league.

we only tripped on this because the D.C.’s home “stadium” (air quotes, the court is temporary and was constructed in the middle of a parking lot downtown) was used in the trials for the homeless world cup.

the format is a stripped down version of tennis (first to five wins the set, first to four wins the game, no deuces/advantages) where each set is a different competition (men’s singles, women’s doubles, men’s doubles, mixed doubles, women’s singles). the team with the most sets/games wins.

tragically, washington got whupped (by the 2 win, 10 loss delaware smash) so the two best parts of the evening had nothing to do with the matches:

  • first, in between sets there was a wii tennis match between an 8-year old and a member of the d.c. team where the kid got crushed.
  • second, half way through the final set of the match, the public address mis-announced washington player Sacha Jones (17-year old new zealander tennis prodigy) as Sasha Cohen (23-year old american gymnast or 36-year old british “borat” actor).

all joking aside, it was a good time, and the organizers were obviously trying really, really hard to make sure everyone had a good time.