Empire Falls to Kastles in Season Debut

New York Empire tennis returned to action this past Sunday. They faced off against the Washington Kastles at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Empire started off strong winning the women’s doubles and women’s singles Tatjana Maria and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeated Madison Brengle and Christina McHale 5-4. Tatjana then came back to defeat Madison Brengle 5-3.

It appeared that it would be an easy night for Empire after jumping to a 3-0 lead. However, that was not to be the case. McHale and Robert Lindstedt played crippling defense and used their all-court skills against Neal Skupuski, to storm back to a 5-3 set win.

In the men’s singles, Steve Johnson, who replaced John Isner, never quite got his footing in the set. Johnson seemed out of sorts and at one point even took a medical timeout. Mathew Ebden easily won the set 5-1.

In the last event, Johnson and Skupski tried their best to get the Empire into extended play, where they could, win the match but it was to no avail. Ebden and Lindstedt were too solid in the tiebreaker. Getting the Kastles a 22-18 victory.

Empire returns to action at the Billie Jean National Tennis Center on Wednesday, July 18.