Sunday, July 24, 2011

Capitals ousted from WTT playoffs

   The Sacramento Capitals have a strong mixed doubles team.
   But the St. Louis Aces have a better one.
   Liezel Huber and Jean-Julien Rojer beat Vania King and Mark Knowles 5-3 in the final set Saturday to give St. Louis a 20-19 victory in the Western Conference finals of World TeamTennis in Charleston, S.C.
   The Aces (9-6) will meet the Washington Kastles (15-0) today for the WTT title. Washington will try to become the first team in the league's 36-year history to complete an undefeated season.
   St. Louis and Sacramento finished second and third, respectively, in mixed doubles in the regular season.
   Huber was named the WTT Female MVP this season and Rojer the Male Rookie of the Year. Knowles has won three WTT Male MVP awards (2001, 2005 and 2007), and King was named the league's Female MVP in 2009 as a member of the Springfield (Mo.) Lasers.
   The Capitals (8-7) won three of the five sets (men's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles), but St. Louis' Tamira Paszek dominated King 5-1 in women's doubles.
   Paszek, a 20-year-old Austrian who reached the Wimbledon singles quarterfinals early this month, did not play for St. Louis during the regular season. The Aces' Lindsay Davenport, the WTT Female MVP in 2010, missed the season because she is pregnant with her third child.
   Mark Philippoussis, who played part-time for St. Louis during the regular season, was not available Saturday. The powerful Australian, 34, reached two Grand Slam singles finals and a career-high No. 8 in the world before retiring from the circuit with bad knees in 2006.
   St. Louis 20, Capitals 19
   Men's singles -- Dusan Vemic, Capitals, def. Roman Borvanov, Aces, 5-3.
   Women's singles -- Tamira Paszek, Stl., def. Vania King, Capitals, 5-1.
   Men's doubles -- Mark Knowles and Vemic, Capitals, def. Borvanov and Jean-Julien Rojer, Stl., 5-3.
   Women's doubles -- Yasmin Schnack and King, Capitals, def. Liezel Huber and Paszek, Stl., 5-4.
   Mixed doubles -- Rojer and Huber, Stl., def. King and Knowles, Capitals, 5-3.

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