So, my lady friend and I went to see the Washington Kastles the other night for their last home game of the season. It’s a tennis league with some baroque rules to make it more relevant as a sort of team sport. That said, it’s still a series of singles and doubles sets and was pretty darn fun.

While no star players were there (Venus Williams and Leander Paes are players and Murphy Jensen is the coach – for those who followed the Jensen brother, Luke and Murphy, from back when they were a top doubles team, yes, he still does that chest bump thing).

The Kastles kept their undefeated streak alive (they were undefeated all last season and have almost succeeded in doing the same this season) in a 21-16 victory, which was closer than it seemed because Bobby Reynolds won the final set 5-0.

The players were well loved (and it wasn’t the famous playing, but rather local heroes) and the crowd was into it. The stadium is right on the water, across from Arena Stages (which I haven’t been to since I saw a retelling of the Devil and Daniel Webster there in 2001) and a nice, intimate venue.

One of the players is a favorite son from the area (a graduate of the University of Virginia, Alexandria) named Treat Huey, who, though he played with one handed fore- and backhands, reminded me of the tricky Frenchman, Fabrice Santoro, in that he loved to play tricky spins on every ball.

One sort of objection to the format. While I enjoy looking at twenty year olds in halter tops (though I’ve reached the point in my life where they never look at me) as much as the next guy, I am just not convinced that cheerleaders are needed at tennis matches.