Black Tennis Pros

WASHINGTON, DC – The Kastles, who will be coached by Murphy Jensen, drafted Leander Paes, Angela Haynes, Coco Vandeweghe and Scott “Boom Boom” Oudsema during the league’s Roster Draft in Miami.

The four players will join Serena Williams, who is returning for her second season as a Washington Kastle. Williams makes her only home appearance for the Kastles on July 14 against the Newport Beach Breakers.

With their second pick in the draft, the Kastles selected Haynes, hailing from Compton, California, and previously ranked in the world’s top 100 in both singles and doubles competition.

She is currently ranked 137 in singles and 112 in doubles in the world.

Haynes reached the third round of the BNP Paribas tournament at Indian Wells in March 2009, and won the 2007 ITF Hilton Head championship.

Washington Kastles owner Mark Ein said, “We have a great schedule of world-class tennis stars coming to the nation’s capital this July and we can’t wait for the season to begin. We are grateful for the amazing fan support last year and for all the anticipation about the upcoming season.”

With the fourth overall pick, the Washington Kastles selected Paes, the world’s fifth-ranked doubles player and an eight-time Grand Slam champion.

Battling against the Kastles in DC this season are Venus Williams of the Philadelphia Freedoms (July 7), Anna Kournikova of the St. Louis Aces (July 8) and John McEnroe of the New York Sportimes (July 16). The July 7 match marks Venus Williams’ DC tennis debut.

The full schedule and more information about the Kastles and World Team Tennis can be found at www.washingtonkastles.com.

The Washington Kastles begin their second season of Advanta World TeamTennis (WTT) in July 2009. The Kastles, owned by Ein, a local entrepreneur, will be led by 10-time Grand Slam singles champion Serena Williams.

The 34^th season of World Team Tennis, founded in 1974 by tennis legend Billie Jean King, runs from July 2-26 and concludes with the Advanta WTT Championship Weekend.

Throughout the season, the Kastles will actively work with local charities and community organizations to share the mission of WTT and bring the game of tennis to the broader community.

For more information about the Kastles or to purchase tickets, visit www.washingtonkastles.com or call 202-4TENNIS/483-6647.

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FINAL RESULTS: Advanta WTT Roster Draft – March 31 – Miami, Florida


Round 1

New York Buzz - Sloane Stephens

Round 2

Washington Kastles - Angela Haynes

Boston Lobsters - Stephanie Foretz

Round 3

Philadelphia Freedoms - Madison Keys

(Joins Venus Williams)

Kansas City Explorers - Milagros Sequera

New york Buzz - Evan King

Round 4

Springfield Lasers - Raven Klaasen

Boston Lobsters - Raquel Kops-Jones (protection)

About Advanta WTT Pro League:

WTT is well known for introducing innovative elements to tennis including instant replay, co-ed format, multi-colored courts, cumulative and no-ad scoring, on-court coaching, Supertiebreakers and player names on back of their shirts.

Team matches consist of five events, with one set each of men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. The first team to reach five games wins each set. A nine-point tiebreaker is played if a set reaches four-all. One point is awarded for each game won. If necessary, Overtime and a Supertiebreaker are played to determine the winner of the match.

Advanta is the title sponsor of the Advanta WTT Pro League and the official business credit card of WTT. Official Advanta WTT Pro League sponsors for the 2009 season include FirmGreen Energy, GEICO and Wilson Racquet Sports.

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The 2009 French Open isn't until the end of May, but qualifying has officially begun in Boca Raton this week.

Eight U.S. men and 11 women are competing for a wild card spot into the main draw as part of a reciprocal agreement with the French tennis federation in which two Americans get slots at Roland Garros and two French players get spots in the U.S. Open.

Jesse Levine, a 21-year-old from Boca Raton, is giving his friends and family plenty to cheer about as he reached Thursday's final against top seed John Isner. Levine, the No. 2 seed, beat Donald Young 6-1, 6-3 in Wednesday's semifinal and Isner knocked out Scoville Jenkins 6-3, 7-6 (7-1). The matches are being played on the clay at the Boca West Country Club.

Levine reached the final of this playoff last year before losing to Weston's Wayne Odesnik. He is determined to clinch the spot this time around, but realizes it won't be easy against 6-9 Isner, who is ranked 17 spots ahead of Levine at No. 113. The two players are friends off the court and know each other's games well, dating to their college days.

Levine played one season for the University of Florida in the spring of 2007 and snapped Isner's 46-match winning streak at the University of Georgia. They have played three times since turning pro, and Levine leads 2-1. Isner won their last meeting. Both players plan to compete at the French Open regardless of the result of the playoff match, but one will have the advantage of a main draw spot while the other has to go through the qualifying rounds there.

''John's serve is unbelievable,'' Levine said. ``He could have games where he serves four aces, so you have to focus on the things you can control against him. I'm very excited because I've played main draw of the three other Slams, but never made it at the French.''

The other four men who competed for the men's wild card were Evan King, 17, of Chicago; Michael McClune, 19, of Irvine, Calif.; Nathan Pasha, 16, of Atlanta, and Rhyne Williams, 18, of Knoxville, Tenn.

Eleven women are vying for a wild card: Kristie Ahn, 16, of Upper Saddle River, N.J.; Gail Brodsky, 17, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Beatrice Capra, 17, of Ellicott City, Md.; Lauren Embree, 18, of Marco Island; Nicole Gibbs, 16, of Manhattan Beach, Calif.; Madison Keys, 14, of Boca Raton; Christine McHale, 16, of Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Asia Muhammad, 18, of Henderson, Nev.; Sloane Stephens, 16, of Fresno, Calif.; Stacey Tan, 17, of Lakewood, Calif., and CoCo Vandeweghe, 17, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

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According to the Metro.co.uk, Sarah Gronert, who was born with both male and female genitalia, has been cleared to compete as a woman.

I honestly thought that this was one of the most extreme gender cases that I've heard in awhile. Holding this young woman hostage while you 'verify her gender' has been absolutely ridiculous and obscene.

I have a very good friend and former work associate who was born with the same issue; if she had not shared the fact with me, I never would have known. This woman's parents had the surgery performed at a period in her life when when everyone involved believed that they were making the correct determination and she is leading a life in the gender that she believes she was born into. Because her surgery was performed so much earlier, she has avoided the potential situation that Gronert has been victimized by, but feels her pain as we have discussed this many times.

This is such a victory for Gronert, and potentially others like her, especially in light of having to endure situation so publicly.

Sarah Gronert is free to face the world's best players after the sport's governing body ruled there was 'sufficient independent and verifiable evidence' she was eligible to play women's tennis.

The 22-year-old, who had her male genitalia removed three years ago, had to have 'gender verification to determine sexual status' under Women's Tennis Association rules.

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In preparation for the upcoming European clay court season, including the French Open starting May 24, Serena Williams today arrived at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy/IMG Academies to train with Nick on the campus’ clay courts.

Williams, who is ranked No. 2 in the world, has worked with Nick in the past and wants to again find the magic on clay that led her to a French Open singles title in 2002.

Nick Bollateri's Tennis Academy Blog

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Two of the hottest tickets on the ATP World Tour are Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils. As the world rankings shifted on Monday, April 27, these two each bumped up one spot - Monfils to World No. 9 and Tsonga to World No. 10.

Fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon also ascended from World No. 9 to 7. The wind seems to be blowing very nicely towards France.

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I absolutely LOVE this campaign, it is too much fun!

In this first video you see DSRL coaches Eli and Peyton Manning and Venus and Serena Williams put their 'twist, lick and dunk' coaching skills to work as they develop team strategy. Listen to the hard charging 'DSRL theme song' that's playing - this is serious!





In this video during DSRL activities, the Manning coaches show the Williams coaches that they have a bit of game on the tennis courts too.

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In a battle of the Frenchmen, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet played a first round match held over from Tuesday because of rain at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia/ATP World Tour Masters 1000, Rome, Italy.

In close to two hours, Gasquet defeated Tsonga 7-6(2), 6-4.

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